Malebolge
by TetsuoTsubushi
Summary: [WA3] A story of past and present with Filgaia on the line. Many battles unfold at the spot of the creation of some dangerous items. A sidestory to NDS.
1. Default Chapter

Just because I'm a restless spirit I could not stop writing even when my favorite computer died, and so I return to my old one. This is a side-story to the fanfic NDS that I was currently writing until yesterday when I could not use my computer to get the chapter I wrote Friday. If you haven't read it you probably won't understand anything in this. Just thought I should say that, and this…Go play Terranigma for the Super Nintendo. Fun game with real meaning. The only RPG I ever felt sad about finishing being that the ending isn't the happiest, but yet happy. Or don't. Choices lie in your court.

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In the darkness a cloud of dust settled. The revelation of a beam of light touching the ground through a hole comes when the dust leaves. There was dirt all along the floors, and the walls that surrounded the opening in the cave made of rock. Rigid rock walls that were cut long ago when mining technology was poor. However, this was never a mine at all at anytime. Jet Enduro stood up noticing that fact. He went over his mental and physical status and found he was in good shape after the fall from the outside. He looked around the cave to find something he was not so happy about. A tomb. This was a tomb. The legendary Grave of Hawthorne that lies in some caverns in the west. The sunlight breaking in from twilight. The treasure he and his friends were after not here, but the grave that they had not been looking for was.

Being that they were Drifters—wanderers brave enough to go out into this desert world of Filgaia—such a treasure hunt was normal for the group. It was just usual luck that put Jet down here. Only he would be the one lucky enough to find the one weak spot of land that had covered a fissure in the ground.

Leaving the vague light behind he came into a dimly lit area of the tomb. A small box lined a single dug-in shelf along the cave wall that seemed to have been made exclusively for it. Jet and his curiosity—as well as his lust for money—put him to snatch the box up lightly. Dust fell from his gray head of hair as he wiped some sweat aside. He lifts the top of the wooden box to reveal a small bronze key. No distinguishing features on it. No words anywhere in the room, on the box, or on the key that would reveal what it was, or what it was to.

He lifted it up to look at it in the light. Examining the key better. "I don't see a lock anywhere." He points out. He looks around the room again. It was not much for a treasure so he saw it useless. Still, he put it in his pocket with a shrug anyway. It was to a lock, and he may find that keyhole someday.

"Jet!" The nearby wall was blown to shards by the woman who did not say his name. The young brunette in green who did ran into the room with her long hair trailing behind. As it falls to her back she looks around with a relieved breath. "Are you okay?"

Before Jet could reply to Virginia a loud roar bounced off the cave walls. Jet looks to Emilia who had broken the wall with her sword. Her eyes went to look at Jet's own. Emilia turned to the direction the cry came out from and Jet picked up on it. "Get behind me." He ordered Virginia as he went in front of her. Glaring into the dark void of the cave. Virginia knew she did not need Jet to protect her, but it was welcomed anyway. She may be bright, and very strong, but Jet had a way of being stronger at times.

"Where is it, Emilia?" Virginia wondered.

"I'm not sure." She focused her attention to the dark like Jet before her. She moves within a bat of an eyelash and blocks the sudden attack that breaks through the wall they had been facing. As the rocks fell to the ground and the dust moved aside there stood Emilia who held her blade out stopping the large fist of the tall man who stood in the faint light. The broad shoulders and strong armor the tall man wore was made of stone. It seemed his whole body was made of a gray stone. It was not a man at all then it would seem. The stone warriors yellow eyes break through the darkness causing Jet to tense up. Emilia stepped back as the beast withdrew its fist. The trio stand without flinching as the beast of granite looms into the room. "Stand back!" Emilia warns as she walks forward jumping to the air quickly to unleash one of her deadly sword attacks. Spinning and drawing her blade she sends out the wave of wind that spins into a twister from the centrifugal force of her spin. Her 'Tornado' technique hitting the beast dead-on, but alas, only a scratch is left behind on the beast's collarbone. Emilia returns to the other two and the trio watch the beast begin for them. "Well…that was no good. Shall we discuss another tactic?"

"I vote that we run." Jet gapes.

"I second the motion." Virginia chimes in.

"Motion approved and carried." Emilia turns for the exit as Jet grabs up Virginia's slender wrist and the three race from the beast who carries onward for them at a slow crawl for a speed.

"That dumb punk." Gallows declared. "He just HAD to fall in that hole didn't he? He tends to get us in trouble a lot." He complains. A bit moody today.

"C'mon Gallows, I'm sure it's not _always_." Clive defends on Jet's behalf. "I mean…what about the time he saved us from losing the sandcraft to pirates?"

"Didn't he help get us into that by agreeing to the competition in the first place?"

"Oh…right." Clive put his hand to his chin. "Well…what abo…no, uh there…um," Clive stood puzzled for a moment. Gallows sat anxiously atop the rock he sat on at the cave's end. Each of them patiently waiting for the trio who are in the catacombs. Clive looks as a small pebble falls from the rock he was leaning against. He puts his head to the ground. Was it shaking? "Hey…we should-" His warning was cut-off as the two of them almost toppled over as a mild earthquake began. The cliffs around them breaking apart. A strong earthquake was building up at this rate. "The caves will-" Before he could continue again Jet and the other two stumbled out of the cave and scattered about the grounds. He looks to Gallows. "OK, maybe he put us in harm's way again." Clive concedes to the nearby grimacing Gallows.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" Virginia urged in a frantic jump. "Back to the ship. Back to the craft now!" She shouts as the leader should. The group would not wait any longer and darted off and ran for the ship. Their sandcraft moored outside of the caverns in the sea of sand that made up the oceans of Filgaia. Built by Emilia herself as well as upgraded.

As the ground shook harder the group was forced to a stop. All along the shores of the island that they were one was covered by a multitude of stone warriors much like the one Jet and the others met in the cave. Of course, they were a bit smaller and could be seen as the underlings to that larger one. The path back to the Grave was taken away by a fissure that breaks in the earth. The large stone warrior—or rather general—stood at the edge of the fissure furthest from them. Jet looked to that beast and their two eyes met. The stone general's yellow ones piercing his.

"Emilia!" He calls to the woman nearest to him. "Blind that thing!"

She nods as he takes his ARM out to back her up. "Transcendent the Blade!" Sending her sword horizontally through the air the swing produces a sort of blade of wind that carries across the gap into the eyes of the larger beast. Jet follows after firing a few rounds into the same two eyes. In a blind rage the beast shatters to pieces as the smaller ones crumble into dust around the group.

Without hesitation the group concentrate on getting off the island and run across the now rocky terrain as rock falls all around them. Shattering against the ground into splinters. Their straight run broken by the fact the ground still shook violently. They all jump onto the craft's roof and stare as the island falls into the sea slowly. Leaving a depression behind. The treasure they came for gone for good now. There was a mild disappointment among the members of the group. Emilia was rather angry at the whole situation, but Gallows was quick to diffuse the bomb. He kept them all happy with some encouraging words and a joke along with his trademark smile. Patented as it is.

Jet sat silently. He was the only one with something to show for this recent endeavor of theirs. He placed his hand to his pocket. Feeling the key in his denim pocket. He could not make any money off of it. He could still wonder what it was for though.


	2. Act 1 Scene 1: In the Dark

Deep in the secluded mountains of the east there was an empty plateau that had been long-since abandoned. It was the place of what was legend now a mysterious whispery rumour. It had been home to a man who offered life and got spat in the face long ago. It had a populous once. It no longer does. As was said, it was an empty plateau…or at least it had been until six months ago. It was now a plateau that was not so empty.

In the middle of this mesa there stood a vast structure, large in all width, length, and height. Broad at the beginning and slightly narrower at the top. At least tall as eight stories, and yet, only there be four-and-a-half floors to it. A near tower made of a strong metal. It was known as 'Solian Steel', named after this very location it was made at. A place known as Django.

Within the structure, at it's very top, there was a loud slam as a large wooden chest hit the metal floor with weight behind it. "My Lord." A man of the shadow announced their welcome, and then departed from the room quickly. The 'Lord' in question turned his attention for the box thrown onto the floor. A mischievous smile crossing his face. From the side a woman of pure elegance stepped forward. Her short silverish blue hair only going down to her neck in the back, and growing a fair bit longer as it goes to the front where the hair on the other side of her ears reaches to the bottom of her neck. Though the man seems menacing she was a rather pleasant and innocent being. That was who she was through and through. Her wardrobe sophisticated. A black dress-up shirt covered over in a gray jacket that went short and ended at her abdomen. A long skirt that was roomy covering her bottom half. Though aged nearly forty she was still a vision of beauty.

She examines the box closely reading the faded letters in the faint light that this metal tower provided her. "It is what you desire." She notes stepping backward from it as the man moved forward.

"Finally," He began. "I will have something that would make me worthy to be part of the Council of Seven. Something that will make me more important than that bastard Enduro." He grimaces. "Elliot Enduro…" He trails off with a voice of malice. An obvious loathing of the family. "This will be what shows the world my brilliance over his. This will…show Saru who really loves her."

The woman nearby looks to the floor coldly. Something that was not in her innocent nature. Her warm sense of being. For a moment that cold glare existed before fading as did the lowering sun outside. "You must be happy now that you have your beloved 'prize'." She remarks.

"Maybe so, Sandra. That will all be learned in time." The man replies to the woman. Her name being Sandra Deana. A scientist of botany who was one of the best known experts of her field. A candidate for the Council of Seven who declined the position to rather join with another man who was more of an expert with anthropology, history, and basic biology. The man who stood in front of the box now. No one knew her reasons to not take such a highly regarded job. She just did. It may have been for the best seeing that all of the Council of Seven were dead. At least to her and the rest of the world they were. To the man who stood before the box they were still very much alive. "I have studied the works of Hawthorne. All of his creations. Nothing is greater than the very device he used to make them. The Gauntlet of Hawthorne." He smirks as he bends to open the lid to the box. Some sort of seal was in place. There was no way to break it open. And when the man saw the lock he knew there was only that one way to open the top. To hold the key that he had thought little about at the time.

"Is something wrong?" Sandra wondered as she drew nearer.

The man stood silently as she came to his back. "There is one more thing that I require. I suppose I will have to go find it." He clenched his teeth as a fist formed. "Damnit! I will best Elliot just yet. It will just have to wait. I have the time. I've waited this long."

"Yes, you have."

"I just wish I had that key." Sandra sighs. He had not heard her at all. Just went on to babble more. Her supportive role diminished.

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It sounded by your review that you thought I couldn't write NDS any longer because of Writer's Block. I don't have that. How can I have Writer's Block on a story I already wrote nearly two years ago come February? I wrote the next chapter, but I wrote new exclusive items into the next chapter of NDS just for the sake of this rewrite and to transition it into WA 3 better. I did it and I can't recall what new scenes I added to it since I nearly rewrote it fully aside from a few parts. It is a crucial part for NDS being that it will clear up all of the questions about Emilia's first life. Friday night the site would not allow me to upload it though, so I postponed it until Saturday. Just my luck that Saturday for some odd reason Windows XP wouldn't work on the computer I saved it to. So…now I'm back on my old PC, but I don't have that chapter. How sad. It really was needed for this story too I think. Now I can't mention the same things. I have to work around it.

Anyway, that's the reason. Case closed.


	3. Act 1 Scene 2: History Lesson

"Here we go…I found the book." Clive placed the heavy book upon the table in the kitchen. He looked to the other four Drifters around him who had been waiting patiently. "As you all are aware, that place we were at was the Grave of Hawthorne. I'm sure that none of you are aware of who he is, but I was lucky enough to find the so-called legend about him." He boasted. He caught their glares. He had talked too much, and said so little again. "Er…anyway, I find this legend of interest considering the fact that it is related to the story I found regarding the Twilight Elements from Roykman."

"The Twilight Elements? What did…this man have to do with those things?" Jet bent his brow in confusion, but so did everyone else.

"That's what I was about to explain." Clive points out with a breath. "Hawthorne was the man who created the Twilight Elements long ago."

"A man created those things?" Virginia nearly choked.

Clive nods. "Not just any man. An elemental I believe. Whatever the case he was not considered human in the legend. He could have been a demon as well. There are some links that suggest that even the elementals were born from demon and human mating. Humanoid demons that is, or possibly it could suggest Hawthorn is one of the original natives and aborigine of this planet." Clive dictated with a boring tone.

"There has to be more to this…right?" Gallows yawns. "I mean…legends are no fun if that's all there is to them."

Clive nods again. Placing his hand to his chin. "When the planet's life was fleeting in the beginning Hawthorne created the Twilight Elements to help save humankind."

"Those gems? How can they save us?"

"Not the gems. What they stand for. We've already met three of them. Each one has an emotion related to it. It could be possible that is the true purpose in some way. We still won't know until we have Twilight Lone and see what that Generator Eon is." Clive flips the book to a page and reads it over quickly. "He asked of only one thing in return for this 'hope' he offered. A certain woman. But…that woman was already in love with another man, and while it was agreed that Hawthorne would get his woman, the man and woman tricked him and gave another. When he recognized the truth he denied humans of his creations. He deemed the race not worthy of his creations. After that Hawthorne seems to die along with the end of his legend."

"So…is there anything more?" Emilia wonders. She had picked up on how Clive works roughly, and she knew he was still with more information.

"Yes, there is." He replies with a smirk. "When he created everything he had equipped to himself a gauntlet. There isn't much known about that. Even less than there is known of the Elements. Still, it would seem significant nevertheless. That is all we know about Hawthorne as of now." Clive ends his report.

"Right. So we should go into Luck's Best for now to refuel and gather up some food for us." Virginia concluded. Everyone aside from Jet nodded. "Jet…is there something wrong?"

"Huh?" His hand traced the bulge of the key in his pocket. "Of course there is!" He snapped. "We didn't get anything from that Grave place. A steady income is always best for us, and when you're sort of wanted like we are you have to pick up that cash through treasure hunting and stuff."

They stared at him briefly. "Anyway…Let's get going, shall we?"


	4. Act 1 Scene 3: Grant Dijon

"I'm rather disappointed in you, Adven." Sakura solemnly noted. The cool air of the night causing breaths to show. "You ruined the whole dinner."

"I know I did." Adven quickly chirped in. His face flustered to the max. "I didn't mean to knock that waiter into the next table where he would catch on fire and then someone would try to put him out and, and, and they missed and a woman got wet and then that woman struck back, and then how everything got out of control." He defended himself in his nervous rush.

"Wherever you go you bring mayhem along with you." She sighs.

"Only when you're with me." He sighs as well.

Her brow rises. "What's that mean?"

"Nothing." Aside from the fact he's hopelessly in love with the woman he is talking to and he will never tell her. Her love was Jet Enduro, someone Adven has never been fond of, and when he will meet Jet again he will beat Jet up and steal her love from him. Or…she will fight Virginia for some unexplained reason as well. "Did you finish your article for this week?" Adven shifts his attention to her career as a reporter. Something that she is becoming well-known for as the best in her field.

They continue down the dark street of the town for a little longer. The paths empty and without others. No lights on around them. The homes probably vacant. "Well, yes, don't I always finish it quickly?"

"Uh…yeah, I guess."

"Well, I-" An assault of bullets interrupts her as Adven grabs her and maneuvers them around the multiple shots fired from the semi-automatic ARM. "Adven, I-"

He turns his attention to the man in the open. His ARM lowered. "So be it. Live your precious more days, Sakura Ryokai. I am the best at what I do. I never fail." The man returned to the dark long before the two could get a better glance at him.

"Are you okay?" Adven finally questioned as he let her go and lost his serious face for a nervous one. His hands were shaking, but not because of the man.

"I…know who that was." She trembles. "I've seen him and heard him once before."

"Sakura?"

"That was Grant Dijon. He works for that rival newspaper and was quiet possibly regarded as the best until…until I came along."

"What should we do then?"

"We can't wait for him to come back. We will have to go to him." She defiantly remarks. "I'm a reporter now. Finding people's whereabouts should be rather easy." Her neutral, shocked mask began to crack and fall. A lone tear began.

"Sakura?" He looked to her face in worry.

"Adven…I would have died if you hadn't saved me." She choked. "Thank you."

He blinks. "It was not a problem. That's what I'm here for."

She wiped her tears on her long sleeved shirt. "I should be stronger than this."

"You should go home. It's best to rest after things like this." Adven replied with a stronger mask on than his real nature. "Tomorrow we'll worry about stuff like that."

She nods. "Right."

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I should also say that while this is a side-story it is also a story that could be considered an alternate ending to the original NDS. I'll try my best to recall how I wrote the other NDS chapter. I have this feeling I at least have to get to the Dex Arc in NDS for this story to work.

One more chapter?


	5. Act 1 Scene 4: Franklin McCoy

The evening brought the low-hanging moon in the sky. Luck's Best was basking in the moonlight tonight as the cool air was taking the planet. The shifting winds blew the strands of hair that mirrored the moon in color on Jet's face. He had nothing to take care of, but he was a restless spirit who would tend to walk the towns they stopped in alone just to see what was going on. That, or he would just walk to be at peace and calm for the moment. To have that sort of thing he desired in the past as a lone wolf. Was he still a lone wolf? He did not think so anymore.

"Jet Enduro." Jet turned his attention to an opening in the alleys to his side. "You're the son of Elliot Enduro." The man stepped forward into the faint light. His brown hair of near equal length blowing about as well. Jet's eyes instantly focused on the jade eyes of the older man. A moustache on his upper lip. His facial structure seemingly stuck in a form of stern friendliness. His wardrobe was not very menacing. When Jet thought enemy he thought man in black. Or was that just a product of his reading too many dime novels? The man's beige long-sleeved shirt covered over with his sable vest, and jeans and boots to finish the set.

Jet stared silently at the man. To the man's right came a shy woman of the same age. Her silver blue hair blowing in the winds as well. "Frank, perhaps it's more polite to mention our own identities first."

The man chuckles. "Of course. Forgive me." His smirk went down to a straight line. "My name is Franklin McCoy. This is Sandra Deana."

"You spoke as if you knew me or my family." Jet replies coolly.

"You're correct. I do know your father. Yes, I knew Elliot long ago. I am a scientist as well. So is Sandra as well." Frank quickly explains. "No, rather more so. Elliot was a man you most likely know all about, but do you know of some of his exploits before he became part of the Council? He was a man interested in the products of Hawthorne. You know that legend, correct? Legend?" He scoffs. "No, not a legend. Not at all."

"Yeah…I know the story about Hawthorne. I know about the Twilight Elements." Jet warily commented.

"Yes, while Elliot was more interested in those products of Hawthorne I was studying rather the gauntlet Hawthorne wore. Hawthorne's Gauntlet, also referred to as Twilight Gauntlet as well." Frank takes a step forward for Jet. "Yes, the gauntlet he used to make the Elements. I have found the gauntlet. There is need of a Twilight Key to open it though."

A moment passed with the wind blowing through the lane. Jet touches the key from outside his pocket again. "A…Twilight Key?"

"Heh. I know that you have it Jet. I ask…no I demand that you hand it over."

Jet scoffs with clenched teeth. "Like I'd ever." Before Jet could continue as if it lived in the shadows of the night a shinobi launches for Jet who jumped away from his attacker. "What the-" Fists fly at high speeds for Jet who attempts to block and counter with his own. He could barely block though. Eventually the fists broke through and Jet was hit in the chin, the gut, right knee, left shoulder, the collarbone, and then his forehead. In a stumble he falls back against the wall as a kunai knife pins him there by his shirt. His vision blurred and his mind barely still functional his consciousness was hanging on loose threads. The ninja of the dark brought back her hand.

"Ranchel Bee!" Frank said in warning. "That's enough. We don't want to kill the boy…at least right now."

The female shinobi continued to face Jet. Jet could just make out her face being cream in color and with a headband with some symbol on it covering over her eyes. She sniffs. "Marshmallow hair." She spits on his face. Her tone of obvious disgust for Jet just due to his hair. As Ranchel returns to the shadows as if she were never here Frank steps for Jet.

"Thank you for handing me the key, Jet." He laughed as he pulled the key from the young man's pocket. "That'll be all." He departs for the alley he came from.

Sandra however hesitates to follow after. "I'm sorry Jet." She sadly pleads. "He wasn't always that way." She bows and follows after the man she came with.

Jet with his nodding mind fell away. His head not quite in it. Everything eventually went black in his vision and his body went limp. The kunai knife keeping his body up against the wall though.


	6. Act 1 Scene 5: Genesis

The morning sun was bright. Not bright enough to cause his eyes to flutter, but still bright as always. Luck's Best was still not so busy. It's never busy. It isn't known as a bustling town after all. His blood had just now reached the dirt. Though it be dry. There was still some on his lip and forehead, and that had fallen to his hand which led to it touching ground.

Without much warning though his body was lifted up onto the shoulders of Emilia who could barely handle the weight at first. She was stronger than that though and so carried the young man back to the sandcraft in a hurry. It was here that the rest of the worried group met her as she put Jet against the wall in the main room.

"Oh no, Jet!" Virginia ran to his side immediately before anyone could say anything and before Emilia could mention what happened. On the verge of tears she goes right to bandaging and cleaning his wounds before anyone could say anything.

Clive looks to Emilia in the meantime seeing that he felt Jet was being taken care of properly. "Where did you find the lost boy?"

"In the back-alleys of the town. He was beaten to a pulp like this." She says seriously. "I don't know who could do this to him. They would have had gotten the jump on him as well as being rather strong."

Clive nods. "Still…if he were conscious this would be easier."

Virginia jumps up she turned to the rest with a hurt expression as she placed her finger to her mouth. "I…cut myself on this…" She hands the kunai to Emilia.

"Hmm…this is of superior make. At least material wise. It's made of an extremely rare and durable metal called 'Solian Steel'. At least that's what I can guess by the minerals involved in it's construction."

"How cane you tell that?" Gallows laughs.

"I know my metal." She replied in true serious nature. She was an inventor as well. She had built this sandcraft. She was an ARMS-Smith. She knew metals. "I think this only can be made in a place called Django." She concludes. "Still…that town was ravaged long ago and was destroyed. No way it's possible to still be in production, but yet…here it is…proof that someone is there."

"Jet had something in his pocket." Virginia remarks. "It looks like someone ripped his pocket taking it out." She looks to the pocket. "It…was a key."

"Are you sure?" Clive anxiously wondered. "I read that there was also something called a Twilight Key that was sealed away with Hawthorne. Jet may have found that when we were at the Grave."

"And whoever attacked him was after it." Gallows notes with his crossed arms.

"He may have hidden it though." Virginia interjected. "It may still be on the ship. Maybe we should look real quick for it."

They all nod and begin a search of the craft for anything that can be considered a key. With nowhere else to look they came to his room where they found he owned practically nothing and they were just looking for nothing. "You guys always snoop like this?" Jet wonders with a weak voice as he stumbles into the room. Virginia moves to help hold him up. "The key was stolen by a man…his name was Frank McCoy, and a woman…named Sandra."

"Franklin McCoy?" Virginia gasped. "I've heard that name before through my father. He is a great anthropologist, biologist, and historian."

"Right." Clive nodded. "And Sandra was known for her works on botany and other notable accomplishments."

"That…guy…he was interested in that gauntlet you were talking about. He needed the key." Jet reports even with weak voice.

Clive nods. "Hawthorne must have wanted some security and sealed the gauntlet away and made that key to be the only way to open it."

"Hawthorne used that thing to make the Twilight Elements…so what can it do?" Jet questioned before needing to sit on his bed. His breath ragged for the moment. By evening he would be back to tip-top shape, but for the moment he was weak.

Emilia waves the kunai. "The only lead we have is that this knife was forged in Django. There's no mistaking that. If it was made in the lands that Hawthorne lived in there is no doubt that this is where we will find some answers."

"Right, set course for there then."

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It just keeps building and building up. The real action won't start until after the interlude, so that's five more scenes away. But everyone is going to be fighting and some will fight twice so we're in for lots of fights scenes that are far better than the prelude or the one last chapter with Ranchel. The others will last longer. Just look forward to all of that as I go through the next five chapters which include flashbacks, history on an enemy, more Adven and Sakura, more enemies being introduced, and then finally a fluff chapter because I know you all love seeing angst with Virginia and Jet.


	7. Act 2 Scene 1: The Past Makes the Prese...

It was years ago that they first met. A young man with auburn hair with the name of Franklin McCoy. An aspiring student of anthropology. But, to be a student of anthropology it is always wise to also study history. While anthropology may be a study of the people and culture history regarded events and places in time. It was needed to be able to match the two together. He was only near twenty at the time that he came to a wise professor to learn all about the history of Filgaia.

There was a young redhead with elegant and innocent beauty that went by the name of Saru Akabi. She too had come to learn about the history of her fair planet. Right alongside of McCoy. A man who was instantly taken by her beauty. She became his crush, and will be until the present day.

While Frank was studying alongside Saru the history of Filgaia there was another young woman who studied among the same professor. The professor was an old man not long for this world, but while he was here he had done his research and studied as much as he could of history and of plants, which were slowly leaving the planet at the time. This woman with her near bluish hair color with the name of Sandra Deana.

However, there was another man who came along older than those three. Frank was quick to not like the man. He did not like that this man was brilliant and already on his way to becoming a top specialist in the field of anthropology at the time, but it was also not just that. Elliot Enduro was also interested in more things. It was those other things that led to his acceptance in the Council of Seven which was changing roster at the time. The newest incarnation. Still, that was later, and not at the time of his arrival at the professor's home.

Enduro had a mission at the time to discover what the Twilight Elements were. He had read of them in his studies of past civilization and when he found the story about Hawthorne. It would be a topic he would later move away from and eventually join the Council of Seven and work on his project there and there would be Adam Kadmon who became Jet Enduro.

In his search he required someone who knew a lot about the history of the planet, and of course he went to the best, and eventually he enlisted Saru to aid him. That was the beginning of the man known as Franklin McCoy's own research into Hawthorne. His search for the gauntlet. And…the woman known as Sandra stuck to him and aided him. She was great at finding resources and texts that would profit McCoy's research. Sandra was a shy woman. She was also only ever considered, at best in McCoy's mind, a friend and colleague. Whether she desired something more is unknown to anyone aside from her.

In his need to impress and woe his love, Saru, Frank decided to be more adventurous than Enduro was. It was pointless for the need for two men to research the same topic separately. So Frank decided to move on to looking into the gauntlet that Hawthorne used to create the Twilight Elements.

His life ambition to impress his love.

Despite the years. Despite the fact Saru and Elliot came together and sired young. Beside the changing of the world through the Council of Seven's creations (from which Sandra was smart enough to protect them from the memory loss involved with that event). Frank was still as intent on his work to this very day. And that is how he lived his life. Always out to be better than a man who is dead. Always after a woman who has perished as well. Will it even be possible for him to ever reach his true goal if this is the case?

Who would know the answer? Only a woman who was shy, and always by his side could know. And she does. She just has yet to say what will happen.

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Uh…I was thinking I would write a flashback…but there really wasn't one really. Just an explanation of the past. I just couldn't see dialogue and scenes entering this chapter. Just saying what happened worked better in my mind. But I'm not sure. Whatever works though…


	8. Act 2 Scene 2: The Woman of Shadow

The tower that stood in Django was always dark. It was mid-morning though, but there was always just some sort of gloom over the land. The doom and gloom of the bedroom of one Ranchel Bee was even colder. There was no light at all there. No windows to any of the rooms. It was a cold fortress of metal. Still yet, her room was the darkest in the whole structure. Even darker than the elevator shaft and the boiler room. Her door slid open quickly.

Light broke into the room as a second woman enters the room flipping the switch on illuminating the whole room to his disgust. Her gi of blue and her tight pants of black as she sits on her bed meditating. How she knew the light went on is unfathomable. She wears her headband with the symbol sort of like a cut-off rainbow half without the separation of colors. Still, with that on she is not able to see, and yet she does. Some believe that she has trained her other senses to their best. And others question why she wears it. She has worn it forever. Yet she is not blind.

"I bring you dinner." The second woman laughs. Her hair a honey brown with the ends in curls. A black collar around her neck. Her wardrobe odd in fashion being that it was a tight purple suit that went to her thigh where it then went on to long black boots. A cat tail hanging from her back. Orange buckler with sharpen claw to the fingertips. Ranchel does not flinch at all. "Are you brooding over a man?" She scoffs. She was aware that Ranchel would never concern herself with men. Ranchel was heartless it was said. Only interested in killing one particular person, but never saying who it was.

"You're right Honey. I do have a man on my mind." Came Ranchel's emotionless reply.

Honey nearly flinched. She had not expected her statement to be true. "Is that so?" She still does not believe it. Each of them were part of McCoy's so-called 'Senarius Six' group of assassins and others that he had brought together. Honey herself a beautiful, seductive, beautiful (cause it must be said again) assassin. Secretly, each of these two women desire to fight Frank. One wants to kill him, (Ranchel) and the other just to fight. Honey wants to fight the ultimate fight, and she thinks him strong. Ranchel desires the gauntlet. She wants to know it's power, and also, she is a descendent of Hawthorne. She believes it should only belong in her hands.

"Yes. I think of a man who I was fated to meet and…may have even been looking for, for a long time."

Honey takes a seat on the bed and looks on intrigued. "Oh? Tell me more about it. Like what the man's like. Handsome?"

"His name is Jet Enduro." Ranchel admits. "I have sworn myself to kill him." She continues casually.

Honey frowns in disappointment and stands. Not the romantic stuff she was looking to find out. "I don't know why I'll bother, but why do you want this man, Jet Enduro, dead?"

"Because he has gray hair."

The look of confusion could never be matched by any other. Honey was just downright puzzled by that reason for death. A hair color? She shrugs, "Whatever. I guess I should just expect that from your violent nature."

The second woman leaves the room to it's owner. There is silence in the lit room. Without any movements the lights return to shadow. The switch flipped without touch. "The gray hair of the woman who betrayed my ancestor, Hawthorne, will die. No matter who they be."


	9. Act 2 Scene 3: The Second Party

"Ms. Ryokai, it would seem that Grant Dijon is in Django." Sakura took the slip of paper with that same information on it as she moved through the newspaper office. Adven sitting awkwardly at her desk. He really had no idea how to sit at the desk even though it was just a normal wooden one. He was a bit tense. He just felt nervous that he'd mess up her desk in some way. Spill white-out on her papers and articles or something. Sakura meanwhile came to the same desk.

"What's the word?" He questions knocking a pile of papers over. He quickly gathered them up as she just tapped her foot and watched the ceiling. "Sorry."

"Anyway…it seems our little '_friend_' Dijon Ketchup…or whatever…is on an assignment in Django. Strange for him to be there right after shooting up a street in an attempt to kill me." She huffs. "Turns out that before his writing career he was a deadly assassin. 'One of the best'. Or…at least he likes to believe that. Apparently he has some sort of mental disorder in which his doctor said he has to be the best at everything or…"

"Or what?"

"Exactly. It was never finished. The doctor said what he did, and never finished. If Dijon Mustard isn't the best he will get rid of the best." She blinks as she tosses the paper aside. "He kills anyone else."

"So…he tried to kill you…because you are his better now?"

"Right. Still…what would he be doing in Django."

"Wait…Django? I thought you said Fandango."

"You know what that place is?" She wonders.

He looks on a bit pale. "I received a letter short while ago. A week or more." Adven began. "It was from Django."

"That place is supposed to be abandoned." She interjects. A bit frightened of what he will say. Will Adven say he knew about the attack? Could she trust him?

"The letter came from a man I don't know. Someone called Franklin McCoy." He waves it off. "He asked that I ally with him in the fight against Enduro. I wasn't interested in whatever reason he had for fighting. I have," He shifts his view to her. "Other reasons to fight him."

"Jet?"

"No, from what I gather from the way McCoy spoke he was more interested in Jet's father. That's another reason why I didn't accept. I'm after Jet. Not Elliot."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It would be my decision. You play no part in it. Just as much as I play no part in your life." He sternly replies.

"How can you say that?" She grimaced. "If you played no part you wouldn't be here. You…wouldn't have saved my life." She lowers her head. "I'm still thankful for that." She looks back to him. "Anyway, I'm going to arrange a sandcraft for us to get to Django."

"Right."

She halts any movement. "Adven…why are you always so interested in fighting Jet?"

"Uh," His eyes twitches. "If we want to get to Django maybe you should go get that craft sooner. Otherwise we may get there too late. The sooner we get there the faster I can form a strategy."

She stares at him. She can not believe why he can not just tell her, but she is not interested in forcing him to reveal anything. "I guess you're right." She steps behind him. In a quiet voice, "You are going to have to tell me someday though."

As his muscles grow tense she creeps off.


	10. Act 2 Scene 4: Twins

A single card of no specific description lay on the floor. It was one of many that lay in a grid formation. The machines of the room below roared loudly. The grating floor ahead leading into the very part of the tower in Django that kept the building living. It was the heart and brain of the fortress. The man who designed and built the metal palace sat on the floor here with these cards. Matching like pictures together gleefully. A game of memory. You find one card with a particular item on it, and flip another card over and if the image be the same you win and put that match aside and move onward. When you make a mistake you return to where you began and put the cards face-down again. A child's game.

"I see that you're beating me again." The young man's voice notes in disappointment. A tight fist forming. "I won't allow this!" He looked to his opponent. A mirror. He was losing at a game of Memory to himself. A hidden inward smile on his face. Though he be old in his late teens or early twenties he seemed more like a small little boy. His personality, his attitude (all kids have those), and his clothing. His face while being a man's face somehow carried that instance of youth in them. His cheerful and energized cerulean blue eyes without any light to reflect. His short blonde hair reminiscent of a small boy's in it's near bowl-cut as if done by a mother. The blue, denim overalls. A symbol of youth boys near age eight.

"Sour." Frank stood at the doorway as the young man turned around with a child-like glance. Waiting for some sort of want. A gift. Praise. Something. A new game to play. Sour Ryoga, a young man who was with a mental condition. While he may just well be the smartest man on the planet and built this entire dark tower in six months (not building it literally, Frank had people to do that), Sour was a boy at heart. Someone who never understands the whole picture. A naïve little boy in a young man's body.

Sour was quick to his feet knocking some of the cards about. His insistent jumping of energy could not be stopped now. "Do you have a new game for me? Do 'ya, do 'ya, do 'ya?"

Frank grins. "I'm sorry, no, not at the moment. I have come to tell you that the need for a 'Twilight Key' is no longer needed. I found a real one."

Sour hangs his head low in disappointment. "Awe…I was going to have a lot of fun playing that game." He kicks at the floor lightly. "Does this mean the game's over?"

McCoy lets out a cackle with a hidden identity to it. "No…no the game is rather just beginning."

"Yes! I can't wait to see what it's like." The young man shouts in joy. Before anything else can be said Sour is working on making a house out of toy construction blocks.

Frank departs the room anyway for the hall of grating with the only lights orange heat from the machines that run the tower. "Are you tricking my twin brother into doing more of your work by calling it a game?" A young woman the same age of Sour spat. An age that was equal to Virginia's own. "As if designing this place wasn't enough!"

Frank grins while never turning his back to the beautifully plain woman. "But, Sweet, it is a game. You two shouldn't worry so much any longer. It is nearly over now."

The young redhead with her hair long and in a ponytail raised a brow over her own cerulean eye. Her long-sleeved blue shirt crossed over her chest as her arms as well. The long black skirt not seeming out of place here. She could only glare at the man who takes advantage of her twin brother, Sour. Sweet and Sour Ryoga. The sister acting as guardian to her brother. "Not soon enough." She whispers.

Frank begins to walk away. As he takes his steps he glances back. "I ran into a man last night named Jet Enduro." He began as he opened the door at the end of the hall allowing white light into the vague dark.

"Why would I be interested in some man? I could care less about this…Jet."

"He is a known link to a young woman named Virginia Maxwell." Frank continues. "Does this name mean something to you?" He could barely fight off his cackling chuckle. "I think you know what to do when my guests arrive." He leaves the hall returning it to darkness with the close of the door.

Sweet glares at the door as if glaring at the man who had walked through it. "I'm ready…to fight my bitter rival…Virginia."

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Before anyone mentions it all of the 'antagonists' that are not Frank or Sandra are named after sauces (condiments).

Hence, Grant Dijon (Dijon Mustard), Ranchel Bee (Ranch Dressing), Sweet Ryoga and Sour Ryoga (Sweet and Sour Sauce), and Honey (Honey, or if you prefer, Honey Mustard).

There are three other enemies that haven't been introduced yet though. Guess what sauce they are now. One is sort of like the Chinese or Japanese version of salt, and they always give it with your food. The other is a type of animal while also being given out at the same time as the last sauce. The final sauce is a mushroom one, Russian name, actually, it's now the capital city of the Ukraine.

Now then…as promised…a sort of fluff chapter (if I am to believe what I think is fluff is fluff, it might not be, your opinion).


	11. Act 2 Scene 5: Silence Before the Storm

Virginia stared blankly at her diary. No, not a diary! She would never say that. It was just a chronicle of her adventures thus far. A simple history. This was the perfect time for her to do so in the safety of her own room (well, not her own, seeing that she did share it with Emilia). There was a moment of quiet along the ship and it's inhabitants. They were on their way for Django. That's all that needed to be known.

"Virginia,"

Virginia almost died then and there. Her heart attack. "Jet, you scared me." She takes her required breaths throwing her diary aside. "You could have knocked."

He runs his hand through his hair. "I'm sure I could have, but then I'd never see you like this."

"Like what?"

Her beautiful blush equaled out and faded. "I…Shocked." He lied.

"Did you want something?" She wonders.

"I…Uh," He scoffs. "Why is it…that when two lonely people talk to one another they just become lonelier?" He jokes.

"What?" She was a bit puzzled by him right now.

"No, I mean…I came…to uh…to…you know…say…th-th-"

"Thaddeus?"

He stared at her in disbelief. "What? No."

"Then what? Oh, wait, is it then?"

"I was going to say thank you!" He roared. Quiet took over. "Thank you…for tending to my wounds." He scuffed the floor with his moving boot. His eyes looking to it. "I…always seem to be able to count on you…for anything. I guess…without you…I'd be dead a lot of times." It was silent. "I mean, we'd all be dead. Yeah, without our leader." He nervously added.

She looked to the floor sadly. "I'm not that great of a leader. Recently…I feel like I haven't done enough for the group. I wish…I was more important like you, and always fighting like you and Emilia, and the other two. I…just stand no chance these days unless I fight with Sakura."

Jet stood there a moment. Hesitation a large part. "We…can't all be heroes, because we need someone on the sides to clap as we go by." He remarks which leads her to tilt her head upward and in his direction. A whole room apart, and still close. "The way to get things done…is not to mind who the credit goes to."

"Still…you're so much braver than me." She frets.

"Sometimes…you're only brave because you're too scared to run, Virginia." He admits. "Don't belittle yourself like that. You are important. Even a small tool is still a tool! It's the same for people. No one…is unnecessary." It's silent for a passing moment as the craft hits a slight bump. Nothing else happens. "Recently…you've been cooking a lot more…and you're getting good at that. Without that food we'd all die. That's a rather important role. And…you're a leader. Sometimes they are better heard and seen in spirit rather than body or voice." His acts of persuasion he hoped was getting somewhere. "I can still count on you to mend any wound I may receive. Physically…mentally, or emotionally."

She averts all attention from him with a warm blush. "Thanks…for helping get my confidence back. What is a leader without that?" She giggles. "Everyone does their parts though."

Another slight period of silence hangs in the air. "That…sounds true."

"Jet…stay with me; I want to be alone." She silently replies.

Jet stares. He was not sure what he heard. It was too low in volume to understand. Still…something broke through for a moment. "Virginia, I-"

"Hey we're just outside of Django!" Gallows announces busting the door into Jet and throwing the young man into the wall. The moment totally gone as Jet stands up as soon as he can.

Dusting his clothes off. "Are we really?" He questioned with a nervous blush, and an eager voice. "I got to see this." He darts off out of view as Gallows and Virginia look after. Virginia's face crimson.

"Why was Jet in your room?" Gallows wondered.

"Uh…"

Jet meanwhile stood with Emilia on the roof of the craft. Him gasping for breaths. "Is that it?" He looked on to the plain with the metal tower in its middle. Mountains around it. He knew it was, and so he did not wait for a reply. "So…what sort of danger awaits us there?"

"I'd like to know that myself." Emilia agreed.

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That was…something. I hate how things seem different than what you are thinking at the time. I also hate that I just spent twenty minutes on this chapter (mainly cuz I'm watching TV as well) and yet…it takes less than five for me to read (give or take).


	12. Interlude: Approach

The sandcraft came into range of the tower at Django. The single plateau. The seas of sands being pushed aside roughly by the craft. It was a peaceful trip as of yet. The group were all inside and in a stern silence. No one spoke a word. No one even could hear a noise another made in the room—though that is mainly due to machine. It was just so serious that no one could even make a joke of it. Clive sat at the gun ready to retaliate. They were not safe. It was not the sort of assault in which they can ambush. The most they can do to offer that would be let loose as many attacks on the fortress as they could muster, but that would never be enough. They don't have enough shells and what-not to have a full attack. Even with their arcana it still would be pointless. So it was only to get to the plateau. It was blocked by mountains from all sides except the one facing the sea. Basically all they could do is land and break in. They knew there was no chance of surprise. No traps they can set up. They could only be on their guard. Clive had told them that when he discussed how to take on this attack of sorts. They were not sure at all what they are to find. They're only here to get that key back for the moment. Their plans are open to change when new information comes to light.

With the cold palace in sight the group became nervous, but that was shaken off when the craft was rocked by a shell fired from a defense turret that came from the sands. Designed as the tower was. A Sour Ryoga trademark. "Shit!" Jet swore as he nearly dropped the Raven's Wing which he was toying with out of boredom.

Virginia took a deep breath and stepped forward. "Clive! Fire at the turrets. Emilia, keep an eye on their positions and change our trajectory in accordance to them. Gallows, make this thing as fast as it can go." The group went right to work following her orders exactly. Jet just stared at the back of her head. Some reason…he just could not understand why he felt a bit proud of her. Then they were hit again and his mind wandered back to the situation at hand. He could not do anything, but at least he was still here.

"Hey," Emilia paused. "It's weird…but those turrets look…familiar.

"What do you mean?" Virginia counters.

"Those turrets are designed just like that structure ahead of us…and just like a sandcraft would be." She notes. There is a silent pause. "Tell Clive to aim at the pivot points on the turrets. I'll make sure we stay safe."

Virginia nods and goes to tell Clive. With six shots Clive took out all of them as they collapsed into the sand. The group let out a collective sigh as safety returned and a clear sea until the beach. "Looks like now we just have to be ready to run in there." Virginia comments.

"Something wrong?" Jet wondered as he stared out towards the fortress.

Emilia shakes her head. "I'm just worried about what sort of person has the brains and skill to make superior automatons like those."

"Auto…what?"

She sighs. "Nothing."

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And…from now on the chapters will probably be longer. For the most of them. Unless I'm overestimating myself again. Whatever. There probably won't be so many multiple chapters from here on. There will be a lot of setup for battles in the next one. Basically everyone except Jet and Virginia will be caught up in something.

Have fun while you still can!

Depend upon the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit!


	13. Act 3 Scene 1: Entrance

Silently the group of five walk along the walls of the first few halls to the metal structure. The hall dim and gloomy. Some sort of lighting above them lighting the halls poorly. At the moment Jet was to the front, followed by Clive, Virginia, Gallows, and then Emilia. It was all out of strategic placement. Jet was usually the one with the best reflexes so he would be best to dodge any sudden attacks while Clive was in his spot to counter attacks and also be on hand to form new plans. Virginia had her center placement because it was just simply a smart idea to place the leader there. Gallows could trigger his arcana and it would be best to put defensive arcana to use from there. Emilia had good senses so it was smart to put her to the back.

Jet being in the lead came to the next corner, a right turn, and a fist came flying for his head to which he jumps away from and counters with his own. The two men began exchanging soft blows in the dim lighting as the rest of the group went wide-eyed not expecting that attack. Before they could attack back a second person entered from the next hall.

"Stop it you two!" Sakura bellowed as Adven and Jet continued blocking and throwing punches. None of them actually ever hitting the other. "Adven, that's Jet!"

The two stop. Adven looks at her and blinks. "Sakura…I knew that before I jumped at him."

Jet nodded. "Me too."

The rest of them could only just stare at the two weirdoes that be Jet Enduro and Adven Bok. Adven shrugged and the two stood at attention. "Okay, okay." He looks to Jet. "Seeing that I'm here with Sakura on a mission I'll save this for later."

"A mission?" Virginia questions.

Sakura nodded. "I…was attacked the other day. The man who shot at me is supposed to be here somewhere."

Jet's ears twitched. "Attacked?"

"Adven…saved me. There was no problem." She assured. It was silent a moment more. "Why are you guys all here?"

"A mission just the same as you. Though…not after a person." Clive explained. "We are looking for Hawthorne's Gauntlet that-"

Gallows placed his hand on the sniper's shoulder. "Clive…they don't need to know all that." Clive becomes crestfallen.

"Well…if…our foe…is sort of the same…why don't we just…ally up…y'know?" Emilia interjects all along noticing the vehement problem that be Adven and Jet's rivalry and Sakura and Virginia's. Ally them? It may be possible. Still…Emilia was a bit afraid of the possibilities. She could see Jet punching Adven in the face if they team-up with one another against one foe. Just because they could not be a true team. "Maybe?"

Sakura looked at Virginia. It could be considered the two be the leaders of each group. Though…a couple of people is not usually considered a group. "I…have no problem with it as long as I get to fight Dijon Relish."

"Grant Dijon." Adven corrects her…AGAIN.

She nods in embarrassment. "Right, Grant Dijon."

Virginia nods as well. "I agree then. We'll work together to achieve both of our goals."

"Well then…shall we be off?" Clive questions looking around the bend to a long hall that leads to what he could make out as a spiral staircase of broad size. At least three to four men could walk up it shoulder to shoulder. There was only the sound of a faint machine from somewhere and the breathing of a few of the group. Those who were the type who were used to sneaking about did not make noise in their exhales. A few of them that Clive had looked to nodded and they walked down the longer stretch of halls. An odd feeling amongst them. Something was strange that made Virginia's stomach bubble and swirl. Something that would not let Gallows even let out a word. The lights overhead created a shadow on the floor before the group. A silence passed as the man stood there tall.

"Cremate!" A violent voice rang.

"Reflect!" Gallows sent the attack back, but the man dodged the arcana.

It fell quiet again. The tall man with his medium-length raven head of hair and the scar going from his forehead in a diagonal for the area under his right eye. Simple clothing on his body. A navy blue sleeveless shirt and black jeans. On his arms two gauntlets each a brown like that of the desert sands. "My only enemy here is the one from Baskar. I don't give a crap about the rest of you." The man explained in a grim tone that is his voice.

Virginia swallowed bitterly. She looked to Gallows who stood rather determined. She could not just leave him behind on his own…could she? She could not. That was not how a leader would do this. No, not just because she was the leader…because he was her friend. She could not leave him here at the mysterious man's mercy! "Virginia…you guys go on ahead." Gallows declares. A grin comes to his face. "I'm going to be fine. To use a line I think it was Clive said once…this is merely the parting of ways onto two separate paths that will converge later."

Virginia holds her breath. "I believe in you…We all do Gallows."

"Well you shouldn't." He scoffs. "Hurry on now, I want to get this over with quickly and I can't do that with you guys in the way." Jet nods and grabs Virginia—because he knows she wouldn't leave otherwise—and the rest of them followed after leaving the two men staring at one another with a gap between them.

"Do you know who I am?" The man who attacked wonders.

"No, and I don't really care whether I do or don't."

The eyes of the second man squinted. A fist formed. "My name is Kiev-Q!" He declared. "I came to your damn colony years ago to learn how to wield magic…and your grandmother turned me away…but not before you used your own arcana to freeze me as I left."

Gallows scratches his head. "Uh…I did that?"

"I despise you. You are quite possibly the best arcana-user in the world by now, I imagine." The man throws his hands aside. "The man who is the best at arcana must be replaced! Replaced by someone who deserves such a title."

Gallows smirks. "A man…that is you." Kiev nods in turn.

A clattering of feet on metal steps was heard along the circular stairs that the remainder of the group had gone on to. A flight up or so they were about to reach. Jet still to the front and Emilia to the far back of them. It was then that three steps were destroyed all in the ten step gap between Emilia and the rest of the group. Emilia blinked as the dust and debris from the attack on the stairs settled down. The rest of the group already facing Emilia and the mysterious man between them. A man with red hair with the long bangs on his left side covering his eyes of pink that lack pigment. A birth defect. A white gi worn over the dark blue undershirt with the left sleeve missing. His lower part of that same arm covered in bandages.

Emilia remains with a straight face. She eyes the shinobi-zue (ninja-cane) in his right hand was the same as her own. Odd…because she can tell he is a left-handed person, and yet he holds it in his right. The same side that his sheathe is on at his belt. "That attack you used on the stairs…looked a lot like a West Wind Sword Art skill." She comments coolly.

The man puts his blade away. A simple chuckle. "My name is Shingo."

Jet balks. "Hey! You're that 'Duck' guy." He points out. "A huge wuss because you're known for always backing away from all attacks rather than moving forward to block or deflect them."

"Traversing Blade!" Shingo lets out an attack for Jet and the group that is the equal to Emilia's Transcended the Blade.

"Lion's Shield!" Jet blocked the attack by throwing his Lion's Rage Punch at the stairs. There was silence as he stood upward. Jet looked straight into the one eye he could see. "Quack!"

Shingo bit his lip and went to draw his blade again. "Shingo!" Emilia cried out. "You came for me…I'm sure, right?"

Shingo calms and turns his attention back to the woman. "My sword art is the same as yours because I wield the East Wind Sword Art, the rival art of your own." He explains. "I care not for your pathetic friends there and…if you refuse to meet with me I will kill them."

"I will do." She proclaims. "You guys keep going to stop McCoy. I can handle this guy."

Again…Virginia was with a gloved fist. Hesitant to leave her as they had left Gallows before. "I…"

"Go Virginia. I won't die." She assured. "Of course we'll meet up again…you still owe me that money I won off you."

Virginia nods. Jet grabs her wrist again to drag her along again up the remaining stairs for the third floor. It was there that they ran into another long hall that led to more circular stairs at the end. Cold along the halls. It was a more narrow and slender hall. Possibly two empty sections to each of the sides. They run down the hall as fast as possible still at their most awares. Jet stopped and Adven ran into him, but the rest came to their abrupt ends. They looked ahead of them to the man in front. Blue hair covered over with a black fedora with a slip that read 'PRESS' on it. A black suit jacket with a red scarf 'round his neck.

"Grant Dijon!" Sakura declared, but just as she had Adven and Clive were kicked by two other enemies through the weak walls into two empty rooms adjacent of each other. Dijon still standing still in the middle of the hall before Sakura, Virginia, and Jet.

"Sakura Ryokai!" The ex-assassion now reporter declared as he let his ARM fall to his side and unleash rounds upon the group who broke apart and rolled aside. Jet and Virginia on one side behind a dug-in section that jarred out and went back into the wall. Sakura was behind another on the other wall.

"Jet!" Sakura roared over the bullets. "Go on ahead! I have this under control."

Jet nods grabbing Virginia tight and running out into the storm as Sakura took out the ARM she rarely uses, but brought along knowing she would need it. She let out her own multiple rounds while dodging Grant's. Jet continues running past the man who focused on Sakura who was firing on him.

"Jet! I don't need your help to run!" Virginia declared, but Jet did not pay her any mind. The two just kept running and reached the stairs. One look back at Sakura who was exchanging rounds with Dijon, and the two holes in each wall around them where their other friends were most likely headed into their own skirmishes. Jet was more worried about his own that was coming along.


	14. Act 3 Scene 2: Conflicting Winds

Two jabs come together at one point. Each combatant trying to over power the other. Gallows tried his other hand, but it was countered just the same with the two pushing against the other to gain the upper-hand. Kiev grinned and pulled Gallows towards him and tossed the Baskar into the nearby metal wall. A hard hit, but Gallows was known for having a hard-head, so the impact was not so intense.

Kiev glared at the other man. "Devastate!"

"Devastate!" The two similar attacks meet and the two men are thrown aside.

Kiev lets out a cackle. "Your arcana is pathetic. I can't believe it's real."

Gallows stood up with a stagger. "What…do you mean by that?"

"I never had the capacity to use arcana." Kiev explains. "The guardians never really liked me."

"Then…how?"

"Do you see these gauntlets on my arms? They allow me to forcefully tap into the guardians' power and use arcana on a whim." He put his arms up in display. "It is far stronger than your own. I am a true master of these abilities. You have inferior arcana compared to mine."

"Pheh. Mock ability is pathetic." Gallows scoffs. "I never cared as much as you seem to about arcana, but…I still am willing to kick your ass to prove what real arcana is all about!"

"Bring it!" Kiev moved forward and punched Gallows across the jaw sending the Drifter backwards. However, Gallows was back in action quickly and drew his ARM only to have it kicked aside before he could get a full grip on it. Before Gallows could look back there were two hands in his face. "Ready…to feel my arcana full force?"

"Slow down Jet!" Virginia shouted as he came to a stop.

"You really should shut your big mouth." He groaned.

She whacked him on the back of his head. "How can you say rude things right now?"

"You know he's right though." The two Drifters looked to Sweet who came from the shadows ahead of them. "Virginia."

Virginia looked to the woman and gears began to turn in her head. "Sweet…Ryoga." She swallowed. "Never expected to see you in this place."

Jet lingered to the side. "Who…is she?"

Before she can answer Sweet stepped in. "Your girlfriend and I go way back to childhood days in Boot Hill." Jet blinked. 'Girlfriend'? "Pheh. You had a way of always being better than me. Always looking more beautiful than me…and you're a tomboy! How do you think that makes me feel? I hate that you were skilled, beauty, and brains."

"I never felt that way at all." Virginia protests.

"Of course _you_ didn't." Sweet spat back. "I've been waiting a long time to show how much better I am than you now."

Jet heard some clattering above them. He looks to Virginia. "I don't have time for your reunion." He moves forward. "I WILL see you later then." He left it at that and ran ahead for the top of the tower where he knew McCoy to be. Virginia looked back to Sweet.

"Transcendent the Blade!"

"Traversing Blade!" The attacks collided and blew the metal stairs apart sending debris every which way. Two beings clashing blades three times before departing as more debris fills the air. The stairs torn apart and broken Emilia jumped to the second floor with Shingo following right behind her. Emilia can see that for every move she has he had an equal or opposite movement. She runs forward.

"Tornado!"

"Twister!" The room blew each of them across the hall and throwing them into the wall roughly. They were quick to jump back up as Emilia lashed out at the man who jumped away from every attack as his nickname 'Duck' implied. The two finally come to a stop in order to stall for each to form a new strategy. "I'm impressed by your skill Emilia…but…you had a larger battle when we fought ten years ago." Emilia gasped as she took in that. They had fought before she had lost her memory. That was not good for her, being that Shingo now had the advantage. She had to change her whole tactic now.

"You…may have seen the old Emilia fight…but I'm a whole other person and I'm truly more vicious than that old me."

"I can tell that." Shingo admits. There was no time before Shingo ran forward and began the dance again. Emilia dodging all of his attacks with just enough room. Emilia let her anger take over and with each of her arm assaulted the man who was able to run from each one. When she got close enough to attack she did and he blocked for once, but even with more strength behind her attack and both arms he was able to easily block it even with his one right wrist. Shingo was quick to kick the woman away and she let out a Transcendent the Blade as she fell through the air upside-down. Shingo was quick to dodge it by bouncing off the walls and Landing letting out a Twister quickly. Emilia landed at the last minute and let off her Tornado as a last defense, but it was pointless and the woman was flung into the wall and still was cut-up slightly by the sharp winds. As she began to sit up she was met by Shingo who stood before her. "Ready for the ultimate of the East Winds?" Emilia jerked herself to attention as the man readied his blade. "7-Strike!"

Emilia got to her knees picking up her blade. "X-Strike!" The Traversing Blade in the shape of a '7' numeral collided with Emilia's similar attack in an X shape. As the winds collided Emilia burst through them, much to Shingo's amazement. "You should use your left arm!" She shouted as she lashed out as the floor came apart and much of the only parts of it were on a slant. She let out to swings of her blade that Shingo was able to get away from. "You're wasting a good arm!" She shouts as she dashes forward slashing the left arm that was in question as bandages fell apart in the air slowly. Pieces of metal falling around her eyes snapped open. She stumbled back slowly. "You…that,"

"It was a fake." Shingo admits removing what was left of his fake metal lower arm. "Merely hanging metal." He glares. "It's only fitting that you cut it off from me once again." Emilia trembled. She had no memory. No memory at all. Sweat fell from her forehead. She could see the past memory now. "Sad…that you can't recall that." He runs forward at her. Throwing his blade down to he ground. "Gale Force!" From the ko-kissaki of his blade that he touched to the ground comes a swelling gale of winds that rush forward at the still startled Emilia.

Emilia begins to be lifted from the ground she snaps back to the situation. "Gale Force!" She placed her own sword to the ground and the winds were cancelled. She grins. "Shuriken Screamer!" She tosses forward multiple shuriken knives that missed Shingo fully and the man let them pass him by.

"Gale Force!" Shingo sent his wind attack for Emilia again now that she was off-guard, but as he lets it out it stops as a groan passes from his lips.

"You're a fool to use an attack and not know all about it. The winds you use comes by your ability to manipulate the air around you. All the wind comes from all around you." She berated. He staggered a bit. Shuriken knives sticking from his back. "I threw them so that they'd be facing me while in air. I felt that you'd try another Gale Force. When you did that it brought them flying back for you."

He trembled at his lips. "I-I will not lose like this! Not to you! Not after so long!" He took his blade tightly in his one hand. "I have sworn to kill you. Gale Force!"

"Not again." She sighs. "Gale Force!" The two wind attacks fall apart and cancel one another. She lets lose a Transcendent the Blade on the rebound as Shingo follows with a Traversing Blade that is cancelled just as well. It seemed desperate now. Emilia had him weakened with the earlier attack to his back and he was still going strong. He knew her old moves, but those were still old moves. There had to be a way for her to win. She had before it would seem, being that she cut off his left hand at the elbow. Then she recalled the innocent 'Quack!' Jet let out earlier. His nickname was 'Duck'. She lunged forward with multiple attack as Shingo, on his instincts, ran from every one of the attacks. It was still pointless at the moment.

"Just give up!" Shingo argued as he knew he would win since she is the one who will become the most tired just swinging her blade around like she is. It was this moment that a shuriken knife flung at him and he moved aside.

"Fengalon Claw!" Emilia used the move she just made up and darted at an angle at Shingo's right side ripping it apart leaving behind three claw marks and thin red lines in the man's side. Not fatal, but it was painful. She lands perfectly behind him as he drops he loses his grip on the tsuka and drops to the ground on his back embedding the knives in his back further.

He thought he was dead, but he still breathed. None of his injuries would kill him he found as he monitored his wounds. He looked to Emilia. "Y-You…didn't kill me? You won't?"

"I don't know who I was in my old life, but I'm no killer today." She remarks putting her blade away. "If you want to die…do it yourself. If it's seppeku I will cut off your head if you want after you do the deed." She walks to the man's fallen sword and drops her own to the floor. "Maybe you've lost your way. You think the East Wind will save you when you want. Go ahead. Your skills won't save you." She turns away. "I'm taking your sword. Maybe you'll learn that the sword doesn't make the wielder if you change your weapon and see the truth."

Shingo let out a groan. "What…are you saying?"

"Get stronger. We'll meet again until your satisfied. Just not today." She walks away intent on catching up to Jet and the rest, though, she isn't aware just yet that there is only Jet to catch up to.

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I just want to say…that Emilia's battle ended sooner than it was meant to. It was supposed to end in Scene Five of this act, but I have to move it up so that she can battle someone else. In the original story there was one more character. So…I need someone to take the role of two.

Just so you know, Kiev is some sort of sauce or something. I don't really know too much about it. Duck is a type of sauce I get with my Chinese food. I just love making characters named after something. There was the line of characters I made named after card games, and there were the characters with countries being their names…well…twisted forms of country names. I'm not going to call someone Nepal, but a guy name Pal sounds good.

Anyway…I'm just talking because it's been a slow day…research paper. Do you think I'll get an 'F' on a research paper if I don't even know what I researched or what the thesis was now in hindsight?

I'm so screwed…I hate college English. All we do is non-fiction garbage.


	15. Act 3 Scene 3: Firearms and CatTails

I was really out of it last chapter. I have to apologize now. I'm sorry for the last chapter. I'm sure a lot of the story was fine, but my grammar was horrible. I kept putting he for the, and she for see, and to for two. I started sentences and then changed my mind and said the same thing without deleting the original beginning so it was all choppy. I had just finished my research paper, if that's any excuse. I'll try my b…no, not my best, but my darndest from here on out.

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The metal of the halls are torn apart by hundreds of rounds from Dijon's ARM. A maniacal laughter filling the room. His fire not shadowing his laughs. Sakura ran along the floor trying her best to outrun the shots as she would run around him as best she could in the crowded halls. The man had a way of putting in a new clip before she could even get an attack in. She had to try something.

"Why are you doing this?" She pleaded. "You're…a well respected reporter!" She got in through gasps. It was hard to talk and run since her breaths were wearing thin.

"Pheh. He was once a deadly assassin!" He bellowed. "He is the best at what he does, and Grant Dijon is always the best!" He decreed. "No one can be his better! If they are…he will become their better in another field." Sakura was just beginning to realize how crazy this man is being that he speaks in the third-person. She figured out what he meant though. If someone were his better at anything, say eating, he would kill them in another field, say…fighting like this. "Sakura Ryokai is better reporter than Grant Dijon…but she will not be a better fighter, and he will kill her!" His relentless attacks and quick reloads continue as Sakura can feel her body start to tire. The time it takes him to reload ever only gave her brief seconds to take a breath and get ahead of his shots. She is well aware that the running around will save her, but may kill her in the long run. "Fu-fu-fu! I have enough rounds to keep this up for hours!"

She flinched out of pain when she spots the blood on her left forearm. In this moment she looks to the man and notices a grin on his face. There was a linger and no shots passed which brought a grin to her own face. She began to move again as he fired after her. She stops short and takes a few rounds from his gun. As he stopped his assault she took her own ARM and fired out at him as three rounds entered the man's body causing him to drop to the ground.

"Grant…is amazed she would take shots in to get one attack in."

Sakura grins as she drops her holster to the floor. Three rounds sticking out of it. "I used my holster to take the shots. I knew you would think I took them instead."

Dijon stood up anyway. "Still…Grant Dijon has plenty of fight left in him." He gleamed as his ARM came back to his hand and Sakura went back on the defensive.

Clive looked around the large room he was knocked into by some unknown enemy. He rubbed his head to counter the small bump growing from the wound he gained from hitting the ground. He looked in the direction of some footsteps he overhears. "Hello there, my name is Soy Jackson." The young man grinned. His eyes covered over by a pair of black sunglasses. A jacket over his black shirt, colored red on the sleeves and collars, and green across his torso and chest, as well as his back. His dark brown pants looking nearly black in the shadows of the room. Clive stared at him from his kneeling position. Soy looked the married man over diligently. Finally letting go a low sigh. "I was promised to meet the greatest marksman in all of Filgaia…but no, I get a pathetic pretty boy who probably can barely use that huge gun of his."

Clive was quick to stand in outrage. Clenched teeth. "What?" Clive was quick to swing up his ARM and fire at the young man whose jacket at the shoulders is blown apart. Soy let out a mild chuckle.

"That's hilarious…you tried to shoot out my shoulder and only grazed my coat."

Clive let out a grin. "That would be true…had I been aiming at your shoulders. I aimed at those sleeves."

Soy let out another humoring laugh. "I may as well fight you…if you really believe you can be anything more than an old man." It was that moment that Soy was shot straight in the upper right arm. There was no more laughter as his smile turned to a grimace. In wroth the younger man with sable hair drew his small ARM much like a hand-gun and he aimed for Clive. "I will never miss my target." He declares as he let out on Clive who is just able to move away from the shots. It was pretty close. Soy is quick to follow up with more round into the thick air as Clive ran further into the large room and fired back as quickly as he could while still listening for the shots from Soy. By listening to those shots Clive could hear where Soy was an effectively dodge his attacks.

Throughout the room shots bounced against walls and the two men always tried their best to maneuver the others' rounds. Clive kept watching as he reloaded how Soy easily aimed and fired. He never would second-guess his attacks. He never even looked for more than an instance at Clive. It was impossible for even himself to just simply fire without much more than a glance, but Soy was doing just that. He had to reload after his next shot, and he knew he had to cripple the other man by then to insure that he would have enough time to do so. Clive strode forward with his coat trailing behind him. It was like slow-motion, but Clive got his aim straight and fired the shot that knocked Soy's ARM from his hand. Clive went straight to reloading his weapon. By the time Clive looked back he noticed Soy had a new ARM in his hand with some strange nozzle. He fires at Clive who hears no shot as he dodged the shot anyway by watching where Soy did aim.

Things just got harder for Clive. He had been using the sounds of the shots to tell where Soy was, but now Soy had an ARM that he could not hear really well in the battle. Clive resorts to watching his movements instead and the two continue the dance of flying bullet rounds. Clive got around the shots as best as he could. However, he stopped when he felt something hit his neck. Soy had halted as well. Clive took a dart from his neck and looked at it briefly. He knew what it was.

"Heh. You've been awfully troublesome so far." Soy admits putting away his blow-gun. "So…I'll just wait for the half0hour to and hour time limit to pass and kill you when the sleeping poison takes effect."

Clive glared at the other man and his unfair tactics. Clive grasped his ARM and got ready for the second and final round.

Jet fell to the floor with a loud bang. His hand at his head rubbing furiously. He looked to the door he failed to notice was closed in front of him in the dark hall. A curse word filled the air as he stood. "Who put a door here?" He looked it over carefully. He touched it and it did not open. He tried to force it open by pushing the two parts of the mechanical door apart. He could not. That was what had worked on the door of the same make that was in the sandcraft. He looked to the panel on the side of the door and punched the button to no avail. He realized it was locked by someone.

"Do you think your thick head can break it open, Jet?" Emilia huffed as she weakly walked towards him.

"Emilia?" He was surprised to see her already. She thought her battle would last the longest. "How did you get up so fast?"

"I just cut holes into the ceiling and kept doing that until I got up here." Emilia explains as she moves to the door. Inspecting it up and down.

"What do you think?"

"It's…amazing work…just like a high-class sandcraft. Superior work." She commented. She kneeled down and removed a panel.

"H-Hey! What are you doing?" He wondered in a slight fear. She was about to mess with something and he was worried she'd blow him up along with her.

"I'm going to hot-wire the door." She grinned. "I know what I'm doing. I've made a door just like this back in Jolly Roger before." She assured as she messed around with the wires in the wall. The door sure enough parts and opens though revealing a poorly lit hallway that lead to a rung ladder, but…there was also a second hall heading the other wall. That was what Jet and Emilia came to first and looked to the two plaques above the door. One read 'Mechanic: Sour', and the other read 'GaMe RoOm' in three separate colors in a manner much like a kid would fingerpaint. "I'm going to go find the guy who built this place. Hopefully I can turn off the defense system that most likely is at work on the upper levels where McCoy is."

Jet nodded. "Be careful."

"I don't think I'm the one you should worry about. You're the one about to go into the den of the lion." She laughs.

He runs his hand through his hair and grins. "Yeah, that's right…"

"Jet…'the Macho Man'." She breaks into a jagged fit of laughter as he grimaces and walks away for the ladder.

Adven rolls away from the claws of his enemy who had knocked him into the empty room just as large as the one Clive had been knocked into at the same moment. He stood up to look at his enemy. His jaw nearly dropped as he looked at the seductive and beautiful woman who tossed her long curly honey brown hair over her shoulder without effort. The woman examining him closely as he could only twitch while staring at her soft pink lips.

She gives a small smile. "You aren't the man I was hoping for when I hit you in here. You're pathetic and weak." His mind began to wander back at that insult. "I was expecting a _real_ man. I only like strong competition…and you don't even match up with that tough girl I killed last week." She giggles innocently as Adven began to realize the oxymoron that was Honey. "I usually let those weaker than me go free…but when that person is a man…I have to kill them. Why let them go through life ashamed?"

"You put a new meaning to 'penis envy'." Jet spat. He stood tall and strong as she pounced at him like a cat with her tail trailing behind her in the air. Her clawed, gloved hands lunging for him. He moves aside at the last minute and strikes with his fist at her abdomen. She lands and turns to him. Putting her hand to the spot he hit. She looked at it and then back at him with a smirk.

"I see…you're not as weak as I thought you were." She licks her gloved hand which made him gulp out of his nervousness. "I still haven't let out my full strength just yet." She flashes a sultry look. "I guess since you're worthy enough to at least play with before killing I'll tell you my name, it's Honey." She stared at him as a moment passed. "You gonna honor me with your name?"

"Adven. Adven Bok." Just as he let out the 'k' she was pouncing for him again as she slashes his chest. Luckily he was able to back away from it enough only to have his shirt ripped up. He is able to catch her wrists as she went in for another attack and push her away as they broke. He lunges for her, but she seemingly passes through him and appears at his back side with a grin appearing on her face. As she goes in to strike at him Adven jumps to the air and over her in a backflip. The two kick off of the ground and attack the other with Adven the victor as Honey is knocked back and he lands back down. He charges forward and throws five rapid punches that she knocks away with her hands. The two moved for the other and a grapple took place with Adven finding it hard to actually overpower the woman. That was embarrassing him enough as it is. Finally with a roar he pushed her away and she feel onto the metal floor on her tight butt. Bet she wished she had a little more meat on it when that happened. It would be sore for a while now.

She stood back up quickly and let out a laugh of air rather than voice. "It looks like I will have to resort to the attack I'm best known for using." Adven was clueless as to what it was. He was sure that the woman was a famous assassin in the underworld, but he was not part of that crowd. He had no idea what to expect so his muscles tighten to prepare himself for whatever movement he would have to make. "Negative Cannon-" Adven's eyes opened in shock. An attack he knew himself. The purple glow bouncing off of the metal reflective floors.


	16. Act 3 Scene 4: Vicious Vixens

Virginia looked on at her one-time companion. Sweet was a vicious woman when placed in battle. The pent-up rage that had built up within the woman's body over the years. All along hating the woman that be Virginia Maxwell.

It just made no sense to Virginia. She saw the literal flames in the eyes of Sweet as Sweet kept on attacking out at her. She felt horrible that she could cause such hostility in another. First there had been Sakura, and now Sweet. Was she really such a horrible person, or were the other two the ones who were just crazy?

Virginia was weaker it seemed as well. In truth they were even in all aspects. Vitality, strength, mind, endurance, and agility were all equal among the two, but Virginia did not have her heart in the fight whereas Sweet was going at this to her extreme. Fueled by her hatred of the other girl.

Sweet had proven her acrobatic skill as she kept up with rotating kicks, and switching it up with thrusts of her arms for Virginia. Sweet's opponent effectively jumping from each one. Virginia's earlier pleads had gone unanswered earlier when she asked Sweet to stop this nonsense, and instead the redhead gave a good knock of her head into Virginia's own sending the girls into a stumble. Virginia had found that for the moment it could only remain as this was with her dodging the attacks that Sweet let out.

"Look at you!" Sweet barks. A sneer crossing her pouting lips. "You're too good to fight back? Or are you so stuck up that you won't even acknowledge my presence?"

Virginia balked at both ideas. "I don't see where you're getting this stuff?"

"You are not better than me! You hear?" Sweet shrieked as she continued her assault. "You won't waltz through life so easy as that!"

Finally the symbolic string in her mind snapped and Virginia sent a palm attack to Sweet's rib cage just below the collarbone. The redhead backing away without breath. Gasping a bit as Virginia remained with her arm stretched out. The heat that was in Sweet's eyes had caught Virginia's and left Sweet's to smolder and fade away in mere embers.

"You are wrong!" Virginia declared in deviance to Sweet's claims. "I never think of myself in the manner you say I am. I am nothing like that. Far from it."

A scoff passed through the recovering Sweet's lips. "How can you not?" She questions. "Look at you…you're so beautiful. And…you have all of those friends…you have a purpose…you're great in physical combat even though you're even better with ARMS…and then there's the arcana you have. You're probably the second-strongest user of arcana around! Then there's the fact that I know you can cook, that you're smart and brilliant, and then…there's the fact you even have a boyfriend." Sweet left her argument to catch her breath. Her concerns were pressed out quickly and the tears in her own eyes were present. She was so hurt by Virginia just having a batter life than her own. Like Virginia actually thinks those are good things. The Maxwell girl had taken things for granted though. Still…boyfriend? When did she get a boyfriend? That was Virginia's main question at the moment. Still, Virginia just threw it aside when she realized she was still very much in danger for the moment. "Anyone…who has those things…an easy life…must be a stuck-up spoiled brat."

Virginia put all anger aside and concentrated it all into a glare. The most powerful glare known to the world that showed the other person the disgust in your thoughts. Virginia could stand no more slander. She simply stood there as if on the shoulders of giants. She was ready to fight back in words as well. She knew if she could force the truth to the other girl there would be an end to this. The sooner she could end this…the sooner she could help out Jet who was headed to the 'big cheese' alone. Even wit h her own health on the line, and even with all her attention focused on Sweet, she still had that part in the back of her head that was hoping he would be okay without her. There was also the other spots in which she was worrying all of the people she left behind to get here.

The last floor of the building that could be reached by stair was a dark one just like the one before it. This was the hall that actually began the tower. All of the floors Jet had taken to get here were merely the living quarters and all that sort that surrounded the tower. It was this floor that brought him to the elevator shaft that would lead up to the top of the tower. The metal fortress was enough for Jet. It brought back good memories of dungeon crawling from his past. Even some of the past he shares with this group. Still…there was no treasures, items, or monsters so that was not fun at all.

He was headed for the end of the dim lit hall for a door that would lead into the foyer to the tower (which was the elevator). However, as he walked the hall he looked down and noticed a single Cow Tail candy lying in the middle, and he suddenly noticed he was a bit hungry and in need of something to take away the bad taste he had in his mouth. That caramel and whatever the white stuff inside was tempting to him. His knees and hand moved for it, but his mind told him not too and it was just when his hand hovered over the candy that his body listened. Jet instantly moves away as from the wall to his left a shadow flies out for him. He stands tall as the wall opposite of his left has it's outer layer splintered.

"I commend you for dodging that." Ranchel stood up from her kneeling spot on the floor. She now stood above the candy. The nin standing with her curves catching Jet's eyes for the briefest of moments. There's a huge difference in sex for free and sex for money, and that is the fact that sex for money costs less. So…he was not about to think anything like that. Men think about sex at least three times an hour, but one time could live with them as regret for the rest of their lives. Jet recalled their previous meeting. She had kicked his butt and handed it to him on a platter—with parsley—in mere moments, and so he was sure to play it all smart this time. Her lips parted, "I do not work for McCoy…though he would say I do. If you must know…I wish to kill that man and take what belongs to me through inheritance…from my ancestor. That being the gauntlet of Hawthorne. I deserve it more than either of you two being that I am the only one related to the man." She snorts the air following her explanation to show her disgust of the man. Her headband covering her eyes still. That has never left her face in many years after all.

"If you want that gauntlet…why waste your time with me? I don't want it really…I just don't want that man to have it." Jet questions and explained.

"There was a woman to whom my ancestor was promised in return to providing the humans with the Twilight Elements and Generator Eon." Ranchel began. "I think you know about her…but…this woman…she had…gray hair. Just…like…yours!"

Jet could barely blink before the woman, whose anger exists in pure thunder, struck for the young man who was quick to move to the wall as the young woman flew by him. Stopping she turns back around. Jet still was confused as to why he was fighting. He understood that his hair was the same, and so she wanted to kill him as revenge to Hawthorne…but…he did not see why he was the one who had to die. "I don't understand why you want to kill me."

"Do I have to make it any clearer? You have gray hair…I can smell the lack of pigment in your hair. Plain as day." She gave a grimace as she showed distaste for the smell she sniffs.

"I still don't understand…because y-" She swiped her arms out and lunged for the young man who jumped away. She was relentless and kept lunging after as they ran. His own hands deflecting the attacks before he moves around her and gets a break between the two. "I don't understand…but you're going to try an' kill me anyway…so I might as well break my 'rule' against hitting women with my full strength this one time."


	17. Act 3 Scene 5: Raging Emotions

Emilia stumbled into the room with the grating flooring. The faint orange glow to the room from some sort of lighting or fire possibly underneath them. Lining the walls were active machines that were processing data of some sort. Controls on them that Emilia had only the knowledge so far on how to use about half of them from pure inspection.

Her heavy feet on the grating sent out clangs with each step.

There was only dark to the room. Nothing more just yet. She could hear only the churning of the machines and a burst of flame.

_Where is the mechanic?_

It didn't sit well with her. Then there was the drop of metal pieces onto the metal floor and the young blonde haired man stumbled out with a playful laugh of embarrassment. "Ah…I guess I'm it now aren't I?"

Emilia just stared at the man. He was younger than her and she found it odd that he thought they were playing hide 'N' seek. The young man just rubbing the back of his head with a tongue sticking out from his lips from the same embarrassment his playful laugh came from. "What-"

The young man was all up in her face within moments jumping with excitement. "My name's Sour Ryoga! That's my name! Do you need to hear it again? It's Sour if you hadn't!" His jumps stopped and instead pure emotion that be his excitement channeled in his fists as they shook in front of him. "You came to play a game right? You did, didn't you?"

Emilia saw the limits of the man's brain. That he was just a little child in mind. "No…I'm not here to play any games with you. I'm more interested in the main console that controls the fortresses defenses."

The man's head bobs up and down. "I know what that is! I know it cause I made it for my construction set. Yep. And if you play a game with me I'll show you all of my toys."

Emilia stared at the hopeful young man. There was not enough time to actually look through all of the consoles. Her only choice was the one before her now. "What's the game?"

The small room that be the elevator came to a stop at the top floor. When the doors had separated Frank stepped out with Sandra following behind. The room was well-lit by various openings in the walls much like windows, but lacking the clear walls that would be a window. There was a ledge that you can walk out onto without any problem. The two of them walking forward to the chest the gauntlet was in.

Frank held out his hand. "The key, Sandra."

She nods in silence. The small key leaving her hand for his when he touch hers. There was a brief period of a smile on her lips that went away as the man turned back to the chest. "So…are you ready…Frank?"

"It was here many years ago that Hawthorne stood at the same height in the sky in his stone tower. While the tower had fallen, and the town that stood here fallen as well, I have established this new tower to continue that legacy." He looks to the chest. "It's only a matter of time now that I open it up. Then the world will know the genius that I own that Enduro never had."

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Jet came to a shrieking stop as his boots made a loud annoying squeak as he came to the end of the hall. He quickly jumped to the right side of the hall and directed himself back for the other end of the hall. Just as soon as he landed where he had on the other side of the hall a shadow missile crashes with the wall quickly following after him as it jumps along the wall.

It was a great chase so far. Jet was running as hard as he could around the halls as Ranchel continued giving chase to him. Every attack she made was full force which was why much of the wall had large indentions from the all of the attacks she has missed so far on.

She lunged again by bouncing off of the one wall for the side that Jet stood on. At the last minute Jet ducks as she misses his head by mere inches. His fist is thrown into her left breast out of panic by Jet who was just intent on getting a hit in. As she stepped back on the floor he dashed away from her drawing his ARM quickly.

When she saw that she quickly drew her own weapon which was a large knife. She charged forward and sent her knife for his heart, to which he was quick to throw his ARM in front and block.

Jet had no idea how to handle this assassin, but his only choice for the moment was give them distance. If he could do that he'd have the advantage with his long-ranged weapon compared to her short-ranged one. To begin he kicks the femme fatale away from him and took the gun into his strong wrist and went to aim at her. He had been watching the ARM when he was lashed back out at by Ranchel. His ARM now flying across the floor before he too hit the ground harshly in the other direction. With a loud groan there was a crescent kick headed for the dazed Jet.

He had no idea as to what direction he was lying in at the moment. Not being able to tell up or down. He was still able to dodge the attack that splintered the metal of the floor. Ranchel's eyes were already glared at him.

Swinging her blade the kinetic energy of the air and her swing brought together a blade much like Emilia's Transcendent the Blade, but made of kinetic energy instead. It was not just one. Ranchel was quick to add three more attacks to the air headed for the man who moved around the first and ducked below the second. He was stuck in a crouch for the next two, but that was a low one that would hit him any moment. Jet calculated his own strength and let loose a Lion's Shield on the floor that blocked out the last two attacks.

Standing back up Jet grinned. "Positive Cannon Fire!" His attack comes at Ranchel in mere seconds, but Ranchel is able to dodge the attack. As it dissipated into the air the destructive path of it was now etched into the floor. It had left a small depression in the ground of a rounded nature. Dug in by about five inches. A small canal of sorts.

Ranchel took it to her advantage and lashed out on Jet knocking him across the hall where he skipped across the floor two times. She goes to use her kinetic blade attack again, but nothing comes. "Wh-"

"If you change the environment around you…you can't use that attack any longer. You obviously need to know everything about your territory and made calculations and measurements about it to create those attacks." Jet explained.

"You…You meant to miss me with that last attack to throw of my measurements."

"Right!" Jet wasted no more time and headed straight for the shocked Ranchel. Gathering her mind back together though she jumps away and Jet stops short leaving the two standing in silence.

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The room filled with a pillowing expansion of purple light as Honey fell to the floor in a rough manner. Adven stood on the other side still standing, but covering his body in defense.

She could not believe how he stopped her Negative Cannon attack. She was known for that attack! She used it all the time to get her foes to a point near death so she could finish the job easily without wasting her stamina.

Still…she stood up with a cross face. "So…you know the Negative Cannon as well. It seems crazy for you to block mine with your own at such a close range." She throws her hair over her shoulder and fixed her bangs. "I didn't give you enough credit." There was silence to the room as Adven lowered his arms from his defense stance. The two stared right into one another's eyes. A flicker of their brown eyes. "Negative Cannon Blast!"

"Negative Cannon Blast!" Adven sent the same attack back as the collision of raw negative emotions break upon each other and sending a wave of wind through the room mussing up the hair of each of them. Adven stood unfazed in that reaction…and still yet…he missed the fact that Honey had fired off three more rounds of the attack through the settling assault from the first one. His mind went blank for a moment and the fear came to him that he would get his butt kicked by this. Still…even though his own mind was dead and his strategy gone his memories went to work for him. His body responding to that. "Positive Cannon Fire!" He sent out the wave of positive emotions—though small and weak compared to Jet's—and disrupted and cancelled the three attacking negative ones.

Her eyes were open though. "Wow…I'm not sure what the heck that was."

"It's the opposite of our attack. All it ends up doing is canceling the other two out in a mild explosion depending on how much of each emotion are involved."

"Yes…but it was much weaker than your Negative Cannon." She points out. She saw that as her advantage now.

"Of course it was weaker…I'm not a very positive person."

"I'll still kill you! Negative Cannon Blast!" The purple emotions came with multiple rounds of three again and instead of reacting or sending out his own Adven charged forward towards them.

"Positive Cannon Fire!" He fires out at the ground in front of him expanding the range of the attack and the strength through the reflection off the ground as it rained upward. Her own attacks became negated by his defense and the room was filled with a bright light. As the light receded she looked and saw no Adven until she looked to her side where Adven now was with his one hand stretched towards her. "Negative Hand Blast!" With his one hand a stream of negative energy blows her across the room where she collapsed onto the ground. His hands came together as he let out a groan and his arms folded towards his body. He had to unleash the maximum of his current ability. "Negative Missile Barrage!" Hundreds of small Negative Cannon attacks fired out and covered the room within a 180 degree range of his body…or anything that stood in front of him when he had his arms outstretched.

The room covered with burns and scarred over with the damage left by the attack was enough for him to grin slightly. The worst was over now. She stands up nevertheless in a damaged form. There were only slight scuffle marks and black smudges on her face though. "That was impressive. I never knew there could be such improvements to the Negative Cannon technique. Still…the Negative and Positive attacks cannot kill another person directly."

"I haven't even shown you the true extent of the Negative ability. You don't know what you got yourself into. You're the novice here…not me." His foot kicks off the ground as he lunges for her in what could be a near hover almost. His fist began to glow dark purple as he thrust it forward to meet her chest throwing the woman into the far wall. His landing perfect as she slowly slid down the wall onto the floor. "That was the Surging Punch. You can channel the attack to body parts as well to instill a greater power into a punch or a kick." He grits. It was like he was trying to teach her some lesson for calling him unworthy of fighting. She was also in his way of helping his beloved Sakura.

Honey's face twitched as her own fear began to take her. Her body was shaking out of nervousness. Her throat was closing up. Still…she needed to continue with her attack. She promised to kill him after all. "N-Negative-" She stood there silent. "I…I can't use the attack?"

"Knowing the attack isn't everything." Adven warns seriously. "It's all about being able to control the free-floating negative energy and put it to good use. You've been simply calling on the energy, but you've never controlled it…that's why I was able to sap up all the energy that you were about to use and put it inside of you." She backed away until touching the wall. Her fear in her eyes. Adven was in total control of the situation. "Think about that while you lay in a hospital bed." There was an implosion of negative energy within her body that harmed her insides and organs as she fell to the ground in exhaustion. With rigid breaths in short inhales and exhales. He looked to the hole in the wall he fell through. "Sakura."

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"Three-in-a-row. I win." Emilia declares as she puts a line through the three diagonal circles she had on the paper she was playing Sour against in tic-tac-toe.

He rips up the paper. "Wrong! Wrong! You cheated! Most definitely cheater! You are!" He denied. "We'll play this fighting video game now!" He insists as he throws a controller into her hands and turns on the console. It was a quick fight and Sour became the winner being that Emilia had no idea how to fight. "I win! I win! You don't get to see my toys now."

"What? No!" She said in outrage. "You got another chance at playing a game after I lost so I should get a second chance as well! It should be best two-out-of-three!"

"That's unfair! That's unfair! It's so against the rules!"

"We never made up rules at all! That's why it can't be unfair!"

Sour jumps up and down out of rage and threw a fit. His whining was annoying and vicious at a point that would hurt your ears. A loud and echoing smack came to his face. "Wh-"

"You have so much potential…but you will never leave being a child." She rips into him through harsh words and tone. "You may like games, but we aren't playing one here! People's lives are in danger…people whom I care about and people you do as well. The man who said he was playing some game with you and made you build this product of a 'construction set' is using you!" She threw the crying man to the ground. "He wants to control and not help!"

"I…I-I don't know what to do sister." Sour cried in the dark corner. His confusion taking him as does the fear. "Sweet! Sweet please help me! I need you!" He sat there in silence as Emilia stood as the only one there. "Sister…where…are you?"

"Sometimes you have to do things on your own…but even though you be alone…there will always be someone there for you at heart. Stick to that and you'll be fine. If you honestly believe in your sister than you can do anything." She admits. "If you will allow me to…I will help you now as your friend. Will you just please help me turn off power to everything aside from the lights."

"Th-that's impossible." The young man mutters. "The top floors can only be reached by the elevator…and there is no stair or maintenance ladder. If you do that your friend won't make it up there."

She smiles. "I know he will find some stupid way to get up there."

The man stood with shaky knees. "This is the console here." He showed her the panel there. "Everything aside from the lights will be turned off." Emilia nodded and manipulated the console as the lights flickered and a noise signified the power lost to all other systems.


	18. Act 4 Scene 1: Being the Best is Never ...

_Last chapter was a great battle with Adven and all…I was sort of hoping you'd say that was cool after all…I mean…he had total control of the fight in the end and he was all bad-ass. I mean…directing the negative emotions into her body to attack? But, okay, if that wasn't enough to win you over to Adven's side let's see how Scene Three changes your mind. Adven had become sort of my favorite character when I read the story a year later. When I wrote the original NDS he wasn't anything more than plot device at first. Well…the man who became the basis for Emilia's character became a favorite too…so is the basis for Jet in this story…anyway…Let's continue with the beginning to the last act of this story. There will be two spoilers to NDS though…not major ones story wise, but character wise. I've already threw in the spoiler that is the new forms of the Negative Cannon attack. All that's left now is another Adven spoiler and a Raven's Wing one._

_Also…I think by Christmas I'll have a new fic that will be totally different than any other. For one…no fighting…just Jet. It's sort of 1st POV too. It's not narrative. It's all told through his thoughts and the dialogue that he hears. It's sort of like…Jet doesn't speak a lot verbally, but mentally he's neurotic and doesn't shut up ever. Very funny, serious, and angst-ridden._

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Gallows stared at Kiev's extended hand as he watched the arcana swirl and come together. Ready to strike at him in a few moments. Gallows was blank in the head. He was facing death in the face, and he had no idea what to do. Should he shake his hand or kill Death before he killed him?

There was only one option that Gallows had. It would work out the best for him now. His last chance to escape this.

"So…you think you should be known as the best user of arcana?" Gallows chuckled with a grin. Fear of the face of the death present on his face, but hidden quite well.

"Of course! I am stronger than you after all." Kiev boasted. "I have defeated many with these skills. Strong monsters all."

"Is that right?" Gallows quips. "You better show me how many you've killed. Use your hands. I have this mental condition where I can only recognize numbers in visual form." Gallows lies blatantly. "C'mon…if you're really such a great man how many high-class monsters have you destroyed?"

"Pheh. I've killed nine!" The man showed through the digits of his fingers the number.

Gallows grin came easily. Kiev was too much of a braggart. He had to make a big deal out of his faux strength. It was because of that need that Gallows no longer was staring into Death. Gallows was quick to jump at this opportunity and tackled the other man onto the metal floor in a rough landing.

With the tables turned for the moment Gallows tried his best to form a plan to take now. He could never have one. Still, Gallows made the distance between the two. He was at a better status if there was space between the two of them. He would NOT get caught like he did earlier and be staring Death in the face again.

"You will never be the strongest if you fall for such an obvious trap like that!" Gallows mocked.

A loud grumble brought Kiev back to a standing position. "Cremate!" His blind rage sends three waves of the fire attack throughout the room—all missing. Gallows stood a bit startled by the events. As much as he scanned the hallways he still could see no part of the setting favoring him. "I admit…my ego went to my head a bit there." The braggart calms. "I will still kill you!" Gallows had no time as flames shot up from the floors. All of missing him, but he was worried one wouldn't.

Then Gallows saw what was really happening. His body was thrown into a wall as Kiev pinned him to it. Kiev used all of the arcana to distract him while making a real move on him. Kiev's strong hands meeting the Baskar's neck. The hands coming together and taking away some of the room in Gallows' throat.

A slight struggle for a breath rang out. Gallows was at his end if he couldn't get free. He couldn't even get his arcana to work. His hands in a nervous and shaky manner made their way to the other man's hands. Kiev's grip was too great though.

_This is it?_

There was a cackle from Kiev as the horrible smelling breath went into Gallows' face. "You won't last much longer now! See…I am stronger than you because my arcana is better and my physical attacks are as well!"

Gallows turned his grimace to a grin. A short laugh passing from his closing throat. "I…can…tell everyone's…waiting for me…they're probably all wondering…where the Hell I am…and what is taking me so long." His attempt of flexing his throat muscles and expand his wind passage began. "If I ever am to be killed I'm definitely not going to let it be by an asshole like you!" That was all he could muster. His throat was closed totally now and Kiev was the current victor. Death by asphyxiation did not sit well with Gallows.

His hands moved from trying to free his throat and instead moved down without notice from Kiev to the gauntlets on the man's arms. Gallows' grip growing tighter. He still tried to speak as well.

Gallows let out a small sound, "I…my…arcana…has always…been…like a curse. A sin…I can not…let…go…of." Gallows tried his best for a new breath. He got only a thin amount. "You…took this as a gift. They aren't…meant…to be…blessings!" With all of his might and a bit of his magic surging around his arms the Baskar shatters the gauntlets on Kiev's arms. In the process obliterating the forearms along with them. There was no blood in the room. As if it all had evaporated in the explosion made by Gallows' arcana.

Gallows fell to a knee gasping for air as shouts of horror and pain rang out through the hall. Echoing off of the metal walls. Kiev stumbled into the wall behind him in hysteria. Falling to the floor soon after as his half-limbs fell to his side. Gallows could not understand the next motion made by his enemy. It was this dreadful and fear-instilling cackle of a laugh. A man who just had his arms taken from him was laughing?

"I…knew something like this would happen." Kiev regretted. "That's why I went to the liberty to plant a bomb under the floor here that will kill anyone in this hall and scar the room itself!"

Gallows didn't waste any time. He didn't wait to regain a steady heartbeat or gather all his breath. He just ran as hard as he could from Kiev's body as the hallway burst into multiple clouds and pockets of explosions. Gallows threw himself out of the hallway just in time to miss the destruction and get only the burst of heat.

Gallows had not moved after that. He just sat on his knees. Hanging his head in disgrace.

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Virginia and Sweet continued a short staring contest that had come when Virginia suddenly refused to fight. Sweet was the most confused. She had no clue as to why Virginia just up and quit like this.

"I won't fight you." Came Virginia's bitter words.

"Of course you won't. Because you're the weak and spoiled brat I told you about. This just proves it." Sweet gave off a satisfied laugh.

"Shut up!" The booming demand from Virginia quieted the hall. "Listen to me for once instead of talking like you know everything." She snapped.

The tension couldn't be cut with a knife. The sharpest of knives would break against this tension. The heat of Virginia's obvious anger cooled. She looked to the floor rather than her enemy. "I know what it's like to be a protective sister." Virginia comments. "I don't have any real brothers…but those people I came with are as good as family to me." There was a silence. "I don't have a mother and a father. They've died…each in their own horrible ways. My father to Yggdrasil and my mother to illness. All I've truly ever had was an uncle and an aunt for the most of my life. Even then…they can't make up for a mother and a father."

Virginia returned her look to her once companion. "My father taught me how to use ARMS. It isn't easy. I had to work at it. Everything I've ever done I've had to work at! I don't get things easy like you seem to think I do." She counters returning anger to her voice. "Everyone thinks I'm too weak to last out there in this world of ours. I think I'm better suited than anyone else. I have ambition. I have my family. I would do anything for a friend! They know that!"

"And…even that family…I had to work at having. You don't gain people through simple means…you have to bond to them, and that's a hard process."

"Yes…I do have things you don't have. I also don't." Virginia laughs. "That '_boyfriend_' you keep speaking of…doesn't exist…but…I do love him. There's no doubt there at all. And…if I were spoiled it wouldn't be so hard to work at trying to have him love me back openly…but it's so hard for me to do that as well."

"Still," She continued. "I would do anything to protect him…and that means I have to get past you now. I have someone I want to protect…and so do you."

"Wouldn't life be so much easier without the need for revenge and one-upmanship? Without rivalries?" Virginia questions. "Rivals are never really enemies in the end. I see that now that I've been watching Adven and Jet. They are the worst enemies…and the best friends because of it…neither of them will admit it though." She laughs. "And…there was Maya…someone you never met…but…she and I were rivals…but when the shit started to fly in the end…she was there to back us all up. That's what a rival really is…an ally there for you when the crap starts flying and the sky is raining blood and up is down…and yet…when peace comes you both becomes oxymorons to that notion and become competitive and aggressive."

Virginia looked straight into the eyes of the other woman. "I'm not your enemy, and that is why I refuse to fight you. We're just…two really good friends who've let the years tear us apart."

"Do…you remember Sweet…when I helped you learn to read? An enemy doesn't do that."

Sweet stares at the brunette. She wanted to continue fighting Virginia…but the will to do that seemed sapped up. Something was stopping her. "I…I must be sorry." Sweet mumbled. "I'm sorry that…I could do this over something…so small…that I never took the time to realize or find out." Sweet tilted her head. "How could I fight over something so childish? I'm supposed to be the maternal figure to my twin brother…but somehow I became his baby sister."

"I have to go after Jet." Virginia said with determined resolve. "Can you trust me?" Virginia wondered with a hand stretched out to the other woman.

Sweet took the hand with gratitude and the memory of years ago when they first met came to mind. When Virginia asked a similar question about something else…and she had agreed. Bitter enemies and arch-nemesis seem to start as good friends in the past. But…those same people have the capacity to also become the greatest allies and team. It just depends on the journey they take.


	19. Act 4 Scene 2: The Grey Hair of the Past

The air shook apart as the floors gained new scars. The walls exploded around him and Jet could hear nothing more than the pure noise of the shattering metal structure of the hall.

Ranchel was quick to regain the advantage and recalculate and measure. Now there were plenty of seemingly non-stop kinetic blades flying around the hall as Jet was always just barely one step ahead. Always just missing the attack and jumping away. He hit the walls at the end of the hall and he had nowhere to go.

As the kinetic blades came for him he threw his fist for the floor and blocked the attacks with another Lion's Shield, thus lowering his strength and stamina more. Still his speed did not suffer and he took that moment of safety to dart past the woman and get more room.

The assault from the nin fell away and Jet took it as an opportunity to rest. A grin came to her face as she came to a conclusion. Jet became weaker the moment he used his Lion's Rage attacks. She had been listening to his breathing and that is what was becoming as if he had just run a mile which his simple dodging should not create. All she had to do was force him to use that technique and he would become her prey. And that was the plan she set into motion upon her first step.

Slinging her blade she flings out multiple blades of kinetic energy that Jet was quick to avoid from his right and then his left. He ducks under one and handsprings so that he avoids another. Landing he moved from another one and his lack of breaths was starting to catch up with him. He needed a moment to calm his body down, but he didn't have any as more blades came for him. He jumped away from one more and planted his roots in the metal floor. He figured out what Ranchel was getting at by sending all of these attacks out. She wanted him to use the Lion's Shield. He would give her a Lion's Rage all right.

"Positive Gattling Fire!" As Adven had done with his Negative Missile Barrage Jet did now by flinging out random shots of positive energy through the room that stopped Ranchel's blades where they stood. The female meanwhile dodging the shots effortlessly. Just as the multiple pockets of explosions of positive energy and kinetic energy settled Ranchel's shocked face turned to the shadow moving through those fading lights. "Lion's Rage Punch!"

Ranchel could do nothing in response as her chest was met by the oncoming attack that flung her body through the air. Jet's body coming to a stop where she had just been standing.

The result of his Positive Gattling and the Kinetic Blades now settling behind him. She finally fell to the floor with a hard rock to her body as the sudden stop left her bruised.

"It was smart of you to try and get me to use up all of my stamina…but I'm aware of how many times I can use it and still go on to fight another battle." Jet confides in her. "I still have plenty reserved for McCoy."

"It's…not over yet." The woman's weak words came as she lifted her body from the floor to sit up on her hips. "I can still fight."

"Why fight?" Jet questions again. He stood silent for a moment looking to the headband that cover her eyes. Two optical organs that haven't been given the chance to see light in the longest time. "If you hope to kill me…you'll have to use your natural born sight and not the one you developed to replace it." He walked forward swiftly and silently. She did nothing in response.

It was when he stopped right in front of her that she only reacted with a slight jerk away from him. She was worried a bit what he would do now. Her fear grew when his hands gingerly moved to her face. Removing the headband that cover her eyes. All it revealed was two orbs of a brown orientation. Nothing more. At least to Jet.

To Ranchel however, it brought back a horrible memory. A horrible memory and the forgotten reason she started wearing the headband. It brought a long gray bang into her face. Her lip trembled and her eyes began to let out salty water.

Now she came to understand why Jet did not understand her reason for wanting to kill him. He could see that her hair that was short in the back and long in the front was colored the same as his. She blocked out all memories of her having this color. She had smelt the lack of pigment in Jet's hair to tell he had gray for a color, but it was only now that she could do the same for her own.

The fight was over. Ranchel now was just a ball on the floor who cried into her hands. Jet could barely watch her. Usually he would keep a cool personality…but this time he sort of felt responsible.

"I…Now I…know why…I wore the headband." The woman muttered in a forced sob. "It's…because…I'm a 'marshmallow head'." That just made her break into more tears.

Jet felt he needed to say something otherwise he couldn't really feel good about this victory. That…and any information Ranchel could give for what he was heading into would be great. "Listen…I don't think the color of someone's hair really matters at all…just don't kill yourself over it. I know you probably think you have to commit suicide now seeing that…you are your own enemy. I will stop you though…if you try."

Her sobs by now had died a little. Her ball wasn't as tight. She had the worst part of it over. "I…could never commit suicide." She replies with reinforcement in her shaky voice. "I don't have any reason to." She gently picked her body from off the floor; denying Jet's hand he offered in embarrassment. "I…could never be a hypocrite!" She declared. Still…there was a hollow feeling within her soul. "I…don't…have anything in my life now. Until now…it was…all about vengeance. I…don't know what to do now. I have no one to help like you do."

"If you need someone to help for a mission…help me now. I haven't made it this far alone…and I won't make it to McCoy alone either." Jet offers.

Her eyes looked to his with their full swollen red around them now that her tears had tried. She rubbed them good when she cried. There was a doubt in her. "How can you trust anything I will do or say from now on?"

"I don't trust you." He admits. "Still, I trust you enough to know that at heart you're a good person and not the woman who just tried to kill me."

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Virginia and Sweet made their way upward as they entered an all too familiar hall where Sweet stopped their ascent. Virginia looked to Sweet with doubt. She was intent on getting to McCoy and Jet. Not to take a stop on the floor where there was a rung ladder at the end and a hall branching off to the 'GaMe RoOm'.

"What are you doing?" Virginia asked through clenched teeth.

"I have to check on my brother. He's very fragile." Sweet looked to Virginia with puppy dog eyes. "I'm responsible for my brother! I have to make sure he's fine." Sweet pleads. Virginia lets out a sigh and Sweet knows that she won.

However, it was pure coincidence that Emilia and Sour were leaving the control room at that moment. Emilia looked at the two women as Virginia looked to the young man and Emilia. At first dirty thoughts went through Virginia's head when she saw Emilia come out with the young man. Then she dismissed that. "Looks like you're doing well." Emilia comments to her teammate. Sour meanwhile happily ran into Sweet's open arms and the happy family was reunited. Virginia found it funny that all hostility left the young redhead the moment her arms were wrapped around her blonde twin.

"We have to go help Jet." Virginia protested.

Emilia looked to Virginia with a dismissive look. "There's no way we can now. The elevators have been shut down." She explained. "If we turn them back on Jet will be killed by the tower's self-defense system."

Virginia's hands trembled. She looked to the young man named Sour and ripped him from Sweet's arms. Shaking him violently. "Tell me a way to get up there without causing him any harm!" She begged with force.

Emilia smacks her hand. Virginia let go of the young twin who returned to his sister quickly out of fear. "It's impossible. I've already thought over every possibility and this is the best way." Emilia explained as this dawned on the brunette. Her presence leaving her eyes. Virginia was the leader. She came into this place not wanting to split up her team and make it vulnerable. And she had done just that. They all split up. And now when they were facing one of their most mysterious foes in the whole place the team couldn't gather together to help the one who was faced with that man. "If you believe in Jet like I do then we can still be with him."

Virginia felt her knees give way as she fell to the floor. Landing on her legs. "I…I need to help Jet…I couldn't help anyone else." Sweet was quick to come to her side and place her arms around the young brunette lightly.

It was quiet for a moment before the least likely of people spoke up. "When I play in my sports games," Sour began. "Sometimes it's best for me to stand back and let my computer player play and I give support. It usually works best that way."

Silence fell once more. "Thanks." Virginia spoke.

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Sandra stood idly by as she watched the man stand before the chest. Frank had not moved an inch. Not since the two of them arrived here. He had just been standing in front of the gauntlet with the key in his hand. By now the bronze key was sweaty and the key most likely now leaving his hand with that metallic smell.

_Will he ever open it?_

That was what Sandra wanted to know. She was beginning to tremble in her hand. She knew why. She just began to feel it in her bones and it started to make her agitated. She would not like the answer. He would never say the true answer…but he will give another minor reason.

"Frank…why won't you open it yet?" Her soft voice questioned with a tremble.

He just glared at the wooden box. "Enduro…"

The young man with gray hair who took that name as his own came to a sealed metal door. Two panels that were shut tight. The elevator at the end of it all that would lead to the top floor. Too bad it doesn't work. That's what Ranchel had found out by the thirteenth tap on the button nearby.

"This is where we part ways." Ranchel states. "You gave me a good injury at the end there. I can't make it up."

"What do you mean?"

"The elevator is run through many things. One thing is a wire. You can use that to climb up to the top of the tower." Ranchel explained. "My injuries prevent me from following. I won't last long climbing."

Jet nods. "Are you sure there is no other way up?"

"Positive. There is only this elevator. I don't know how it could not work." She looked around the room. "The security has been turned off as well. Something must be going on."

"I know what happened. Don't worry. I can climb. If the elevator's off I have no fear of being crushed by it. I should be fine."

"The most I can do is save you the trouble and the energy and break this door." She took her blade and slashed the door with her kinetic energy blades. The two panels—now six—fell into the pit that be the elevator shaft. The elevator platform itself two floors below.

She moves away from the door as he steps forward himself. A bit of hesitation taking him as he stood there. Still…even with that hesitation he jumped into the shaft and grab the wire as he swayed back and forth on it. His legs and body contracting and contorting as he tried his best in a wiggle to scale the wire. He looked up and he saw some hard work ahead of him. Still, he climbed upward as best he could.


	20. Act 4 Scene 3: A Conclusion to Prelimin...

In regards to the relation to Ranchel and Jet (which I hope is what you were asking) there is a relation I will never state in the story itself, but I will here. Ranchel is product of Hawthorne. Well…she's the daughter of his offspring's offspring's of…on and on until present day. Jet meanwhile (the real Jet) as well as the rest of the Enduro family truly are of the same family line as the woman with gray hair who was to be handed to Hawthorne as payment for the Twilight Elements. Now…the reason he wanted her that neither the woman nor Hawthorne said was that he was her…first. I, myself, am not even sure what that means. Did he rape her? What? I never really came up with that part and I don't want to go into it now without proper thought about it. Whatever the case. They are related even though each family lines were separated along the way. The Enduro line may be product of the woman and the other man she was really in love with, but Ranchel's family (the Bee family) are part of the baby she had after Hawthorne's betrayal that she never told anyone about and had while with the other man.

That's that…now…let's move on. I spent all day on my new fanfic about Jet. I'm now on page 22. That's a long work for me even considering the fact my novel goes 308 pages. It is the longest fanfic that I ever uploaded at once though. I think the longest work was 32 pages and that was the last chapter to my novel. So…let's see if I can beat that.

And…as I said…Adven does something hardcore again. So…why don't you say something cool about him? Anyway…let's see the end to the other two battles.

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The drugged Clive moved from multiple shots from Soy's silent ARM. Bullets shattering the floor he left behind. Even though he seemed fine the sleeping poison was starting to cause his eyes to droop. He had the uncontrollable urge to just fall down where he stood. Still, if he did that he would die. Clive was no stranger to poison. His worst memory involved that.

Clive had taken only a few shots when he could. But he was way off on everyone. His speed was decreased—and he hadn't much to begin with. Meanwhile his aim was way off.

It was only now though that Soy made a clear shot that hit Clive's side. The bullet cracked his rib, but stopped there and prevented any vital organs from becoming damaged. You could say he was lucky, but Clive would argue that. His lowest ribs had a bullet with it. He got it out with a bit of help from a knife. But…that made the wound larger.

He was surprisingly a fast surgeon. He could always heal up the wound later with heal berries or arcana or something.

Soy meanwhile tossed his silenced ARM aside now that it held no rounds. He went on to draw a second small ARM like the one he started with and fired out at the older man with green hair.

Clive rolled out of the range of the gun and pinned his back to the wall. Soy took to the other wall and periodically the two would peek out only to have on of them fire. It was becoming a pointless battle and waste of ammo. Clive took account of how many shots he could fire and how many his enemy could. He had four rounds. His enemy six. So…he waited until he reloaded and he fired once. His enemy fired again. He fired on more time. When finally Soy fired out Clive ran into the empty room. His enemy had an empty ARM.

It was too bad that his enemy jumped out at the same time. But Clive still had two rounds to his enemy's none. Clive fired out as Soy did a running roll past the attack as he loaded his ARM. Standing Soy fired out to Clive who could only duck with the shot just missing his head. A close call.

Clive was still out in the wide open and his vision blurred for a moment of dizziness. He was too weak to move at this exact moment. Soy however could move and had his gun moving to point right at Clive's head.

But then his face was attacked by an unknown attack and Soy's sunglasses fell to the floor in two pieces. Soy looked in anger through his eyes to Gallows who stood idly by.

"Clive! Fire now!" Came Gallows' demand.

Clive took the slight passing of perfect vision to aim his rifle. Soy goes to attack first, but misses after a pause to aim. Clive was wondering what had happened to the man's perfect shots.

"He's only a novice, Clive." Gallows explains. "Those glasses of his used alien technology to automatically show him where and when to fire. That was all he was."

Clive nods and stands up. His knees shaking in his weakened state. "Lock On!" His force skill went to work and Soy is shot right between the eyes as surreal as that is. Clive stood there before dropping to the floor in near consciousness.

"You okay?" Gallows ran up to his fallen body.

"He…got me with…some sleeping poison. I'll be fine. You…gotta carry me the rest of the way though."

Gallows let out a hesitant sigh.

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Outside the room random shots shattered the hall as Grant Dijon continued his assault on Sakura. Dijon being the victor so far. She could only get shots in when he paused out of self-satisfaction of hitting her. She had to take some shots to non-vital areas to get him. She had been able to block most like she had done earlier with her holster. But he holster became useless now that it was holed, and her sai did nothing much to help because it was not like she could actually be fast enough to deflect the shots with those.

She still had three shots on him—all in good areas.

It was just overwhelming for anyone who was enemy to Grant. His attacks rained rounds on her that pounded the ground and pulverized it the second time. And it was as she ran that Sakura fell. Her foot shot and causing her to drop onto the floor helpless. Of course, Dijon let a grin out as his shells stopped.

He let out an evil cackle. "Does Sakura have any last words for Grant?" He mused. His ARM aiming at her.

Then there came a flying sai that Sakura had dropped. The sai landing straight in the man's back as he let out a hurt gasp. Grant stumbled as he turned to his attacker.

There was an Adven recently coming from his own battle with Honey and wearing the serious face. His anger was contained within him, but it was sure as Hell building up greatly. He would kill Grant if he had too. No one can kill Sakura while he was on the job.

"I will Not allow you to kill the woman I love!" Came Adven's shocking declaration. Only shocking to Sakura. Who was having trouble breathing to begin with from her injuries and her running. She…felt so stupid suddenly. For not seeing it. But…she loves…Jet.

Despite Adven's dramatic entrance Grant stood with a cackle. His injuries seemingly not bothering him at all. "Grant Dijon will just have to deal with the annoying man before killing his bitter enemy. Yes, he will." Despite how fast Dijon had his ARM aimed at the brown haired man, he could never have stopped Adven in time.

It was as if in unbelievable speed Adven had closed the gap of sixteen feet in seconds. After closing this distance and stopping Grant's attack out of fear Adven sent a Surging Punch into the other man's gut that sent the reporter to the ground six feet away.

Adven stood with his grim face of death. "I can not lose." He explained. "I can't lose when I have someone to protect."

Despite the attack Adven made Grant sprung to his feet and lashed out at Adven. A melee of rounds that entered Adven's body easily.

Still, Adven had not moved at all. He took every bullet without flinching. His breaths did not become hard and short. He just sent a worse glare at Grant who this time did not stand satisfied for his efforts. He was more afraid. Grant knew some people when they die remained like statues, but…he had a feeling this wasn't the case. It was Sakura who was the first to watch Adven in disbelief. She had already been shocked by his declaration of love, but now it was like he was saying he also was immortal in some way. And Grant just was not having the fact he was facing an enemy who was WAY better than him actually process in his mind.

Still, in this moment Adven finally moved and in another quick movement he was ripping the sai from Grant's back. Kicking the reporter away afterwards. The sai meanwhile was tossed aside landing in the floor perfectly.

"Negative Cannon Blast!" Grant was flung into the wall with a violent shake. The ex-assassin was near death. Almost dead, but he still stood up. He had hopes of victory. That, and the Negative attacks can not kill.

"Grant will…he will…he will be the best no matter what!" The reporter declared.

"Shut it!" Adven declared and faced his enemy. His arms folding inward. "Do…you want the bullets you hit me with back?" Adven wondered not wanting an answer. Still, it did it's job and froze the older man up. "Negative Purge!" With the built up negative energy Adven fired the bullets from his very body and expelled them as they sprayed about the hall. His blood flying along with them. The majority of the shots returning to their original owner in multiple spots of his body.

Finally, the negative energy faded as the blood and bullets stopped leaving his body. The man known as Grant Dijon fell to the ground in death.

"Leave…her…alone." Adven finally collapsed out of exhaustion and lack of blood.

There was a quiet moment though. Sakura was the only one left it seemed. She was not all too sure what to do. She could only look to her fallen savior. "A…Adven!" She jumped on her knees to the man with a worried expression. Hoping he hadn't become a martyr for this cause. The cause being the prolongation of her life. Still, that hadn't stopped her from finally toppling over onto his chest and covering her dress with his blood. Her tears would help enough to clean something up. They merely joined the layer of blood that now painted the floor.

Then he coughed a bit and she moved to look at his grinning face. She did not understand the grin. But…she thought it suited an idiot like him. "I…was…happy to die saving you."

She whacked him over the head violently. "Don't be an idiot!" She scolded him. "You know very well that you're not going to die."

"I know…but I thought the moment looked better with that doubt. More dramatic. Like it was out of a dime novel." She shook her head in disbelief as he could only lie there as his blood began to clout up a bit.

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Silence however was what made up the top level of the tower still. Sandra standing behind Frank by five feet with patience dwindling. Frank still stared at the wooden box that his life was dependent on it seems like. He had spent the most of his life on this one moment. And there was something missing from it.

"Frank…will you open the box and wield the gauntlet?" She wondered.

It was silent for some time. She almost thought he had ignored her. Finally, he replied, "I just feel…like I cannot just yet. It feels like I am…waiting on something…or someone." He looked at his closed hand with the key in it. "I do not quite understand what it is."

Sandra's lip trembled as she bit it hard. Not enough to break it. Her tears were falling and she felt weak. "I…can see what you are missing."

He noticed her tears. "What…he Hell is your problem?"

That was it though. It was all over for her. There was no reason for her to keep it back now. She had made the first mistake last week when she initiated her own plan, but even that may have been pointless now. "Saru will not come!" Her anger fled into words that cut him. "She's dead and even if she were not she would still not come…at least in the manner you wish she does! She is not going to see you now, Frank." The tears fell worse. A flood. The dam had been removed. "And why would she? What if she knew you let an assassin beat up her own son for your greedy ideals?"

Sandra's fist coiled tightly. She kept her eyes to the floor though. "I…am the only one here for you, Frank. I…have…always been…here for you." She bit her lip. "Waiting."

Her only response was a harsh smack to her face as she fell to the ground on her legs. She put her hand to her cheek where the bright red showed itself. Her tears spilling harder as she stared into his grim face.

"I…should leave." She regretted to say. "I don't…want to see a man who will not change."

His malice-filled stare continued as the doors to the room burst open. Jet stood there silent as no one spoke. Sandra and Frank had not changed the direction of their stares. Jet stared at the two of them. Mainly the red mark on Sandra's face and the tears.


	21. Act 4 Scene 4: Freedom Gundam oh this i...

"I see you've all lived." Gallows dropped Clive right on the ground.

"Hey! I may be sleepy…but that doesn't mean I don't feel it." Clive remarked bitterly. "Ugh…what happened to him?"

Sakura looked away from the young man she was bandaging up. "I-"

She tugged hard on the bandages stopping Adven's remark. "He got dealt worse than you. Let's leave it at that."

"O…K." Clive yawned.

"Hey, wait, you may want to use this provisional pack that Virginia gave us before bandaging him up." Gallows took up a bag and searched it quickly. He pulled out a bottle of vodka and a package of marshmallow birds. "What…was she thinking?"

Sakura grimaced. "I'm…hoping she wasn't thinking." She sat there a moment. "Okay, give me the vodka. Maybe it'll help Adven's wound."

"What about your own?"

"Mine…is fine as it is." Sakura took the bottle ignoring the fact her foot was shot. She was fine as it is. "Uh…Adven…this will probably hurt."

"I'm sure it-" She poured the alcohol over his wounds and he let out an insane sounding yelp of a little girl. "How can THAT hurt more than bullets?"

They all looked at him and sighed collectively. Aside from Clive who had started to drift to sleep. "So…what do we do now that you're the only one left to help Jet?" Sakura wondered.

"We don't help him." Gallows simply remarks with a grin.

She almost screamed, but bit her tongue. "You mean he's on his own? You'd really do that?"

Gallows lost his grin. "He's on his own to as much I know. I hate that fact." He took up a few of the marshmallow birds and consumed one whole. Swallowing it right away. A real pig. "I trust that Jet wouldn't let an old man kick his ass. It's disgraceful for his reputation. And…I would make fun of him for life for it." He swallowed another one, but chokes on it. That should teach him to chew. Still…his coughs died down. "Anyway…that's all I can do for the guy. If you believe in him he will win. His will to protect something can be strong sometimes. Sometimes enough to make him win."

"Pheh." Adven scoffed as his tears died down. That vodka on his wounds was horrible. "It's a stupid thing to say that we should believe in that arse." He snorted. "Haven't we been trusting in the bastard to do the right thing from the beginning? Why start now?"

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The room at the top fell silent. Dead silent. Jet took a loud step into the room. It was silent enough. Finally he came to a stop just at the true entrance to the room. Before that he had only been at the door. Watching a man of power and malice standing before a hurt woman with tears.

"It…was okay that you lied to me." Jet began with a cold voice. Even colder than any other voice he ever had before. "Okay to steal the Twilight Key from me." He took a silent step. "It was fine that you had Ranchel beat the crap out of me in that alley to get it." Another cold step. "It was okay to pass judgement on me." Jet came to a stop with an enraged placement of his boot. "I will NOT stand to see you harm that woman though!" Jet's glare broke the silence.

"How can you attack a woman who had been at your side for so many years?" Jet barked. "A…woman…who loves you."

Frank spoke his first words. Not words. Just a terrifying laugh. "This woman…does not love me." The man decreed. "I know that much. You should do your homework before making such accusations." Sandra closed her eyes tight.

Frank gave a hearty chuckle. Staring right at Jet's eyes that now held the only malice. "I've been waiting for you boy. This has all been about showing up that dead-man Elliot Enduro." A sense of accomplishment on his face. "I can finally show my superiority to the family Enduro, even if Elliot is long-gone."

Jet shook his head in disbelief. An unamused chuckle in his throat. "I just don't see what motivates you. You love my apparent mother?"

It was then that Sandra stood upward. No one had noticed that. "That is what this has been about." She declared. "You have always loved Saru, Frank. And…you think you will always love her." She let out a chuckle. A mocking laugh. "You don't love Saru at all! You did…when you met her. But…that love you had for her has become quite corrupted and now it is only an obsession." She let out another scoff as she turned to Jet. "Isn't…Jet being here proof enough that you should have forgotten about her long ago?"

Frank's brow twitched. He moved for her with his palm open, but was sent flying to the floor as Jet landed where he had been standing. A Lion's Rage Punch to the older man's chest being the cause of what had happened.

Jet stood there with a glare on the slowly rising man. "Didn't I warn you against hitting this woman?"

Sandra began to cry again and Jet let out a groan. That was annoying him. Why did women have to cry? "I…love Frank. I love you Frank. Who are you to tell me I don't?"

"I have always…loved…you….and…I…have been by your side for all of these years…loving you…always." She wiped her eyes thinking it could stop her tears. She thought she was out of them earlier, but not anymore. "My…love for you is true. Not the sort that you have for Saru, Frank. Not at anytime at all. You had a crush on Saru. You were obsessed with her! I…LOVE you!" She shook her head free of the tears. "It's something totally different than what you have for her."

She took a heavy breath as Frank was now on his feet staring at her. No emotion to his. Neutral. Her words trembled on her lips, "Even though…I love you…I will have to choose like she did before me and go with the Enduro, with Jet, because I finally see…just who you are. The monster that is Franklin McCoy."

"I can't believe I ever loved you!" She could not look at him any longer. "Even now…when I love you still…and it's that love for you…that makes me side with Jet now. Because…there is only enough love in your heart to love yourself. I…was a fool to believe you could actually love another."

Sandra took one step for Jet. The gray haired man waited for her. Neither was watching the man who they both are now against. If they had…maybe Sandra would have made it to Jet.

Instead she is run through with his foil. The foil he named 'Northern Wind'. Jet was shocked the moment he saw it come through at the spot at the upper abdomen. Somewhere near the ribs. As she stumbled to the side and the weapon left her body Frank kept his focus on Jet.

"There is no room for people like her. People who are just like any who share the name of Enduro." He simply stated. As if it justified his actions. "Now…it will be you boy, who dies. That will free me from the demons that haunt me. The memories of Saru will end with the boy she sired."

Jet looked away from him to the woman who leaned against the metal wall. She had shown no pain whatsoever. She simply slid down it and onto the floor. A trail of crimson left behind along the wall. Jet simply moved to her side. Frank was not as important as the woman with the wounded stomach.

She looked to Frank's head. "You must think I'm stronger than you thought, Frank?" She chuckled. "I won't cry or show any pain…though you've ripped my heart from me." She looked into distance. Not really finding the two men important. "I can see why you were never loved. You are a killer. A cold man. And…despite that…the only thing I've ever wanted was to live with you forever, and…have you say that you cared for me…even if it's a bit, but you never had." She closed her eyes. "I wonder if you ever looked at me like a woman? You never did compliment me or thank me. I was just used."

This was the worst part of the conversation. One that may be her last. She had the worst urge to let out some tears. "I-I am a botanist." Her voice wavered. "A scientist." Her lips trembled. "A lonely woman."

"It was some…time…ago…that I began expanding on all those fields…you'd be am…amazed…at what I developed."

"You've…killed my child."

Frank did not move. Jet couldn't move. And Jet had no clue what she was talking about as well. These are two people who never even hugged (possibly even at that shook hands). And this is a woman who loves only Frank. So…naturally a baby in her womb made no sense. Still…Frank had attacked…at the area that would…be near the area in which a baby would be…housed.

"I've…developed a process I call…artificial insemination. I won't go into…it all." She looks to the floor. "You…killed…my child! You…killed YOUR child!"

Jet could swear he saw Frank flinch even if it be little. Still…Jet may have been seeing something that was not real. She gave a deep breath. She had trouble with her breaths. "I used…your semen. I'm…not…going into how I got it." She placed one hand to the ground as her wound set in. She was weak. "Because I love you."

Jet…was not sure what to do now. Save her? Was she dying? He had no clue? He was not a doctor or anything! Still…he had seen Franklin McCoy practically kill the only person in his life. Frank finally turned to them and Jet stood up and met the glare.

Some muttering from Frank that no one heard. "You…know it's your fault it's come to this…Enduro." Jet balked. What was this man muttering? "It's your fault that it has come to this!"

Jet let out a chuckle. His hand to his head. A shake in his head. "Some reason…it's only now that I realize how crazy you truly are."

"Jet." Jet let himself look to Sandra one last time. "Don't kill Frank…no…matter what he's done. Just make him…Frank again. Bring back…the…man that I could lover again."

Jet shook it off and looked to the man with the moustache with the sheathed foil in hand. Jet had moved from those two and entered the main of the room. Emptier and better for what he knew was coming. He was going to have to fight this man, and he was not going to let it affect the woman on the sides. He was worried though that Sandra would not get the help she needed. She would live. It wasn't a fatal wound. But all wounds are fatal if left alone for too long.

"Running away boy?" Frank chuckled and ran into the room. "You will die boy, and so will the legacy of the Enduro family with you." Premonition, or insane arrogance?

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AN: Okay…uh…next chapter…is the last TRUE chapter. The last scene. The last battle. After that…just the long epilogue/closing to this story. So…let's see…how this will go out. Frank is one insane guy. His life isn't how he wanted. He's obsessed with beating Enduro. And he's obsessed with Saru. Still…what's going to happen I don't know. It's not written yet. If I hadn't pulled myself from writing that other fanfic this chapter wouldn't have even been written. I really have a lot of faith in this next story. I…just hope more than one person reads that one. If I put so much in I like to have more than just a finished product I can be proud of sometimes. I haven't really tried enough with NDS and this story. A few of the recent stuff I've tried a bit. Maybe…you notice how my style changed a bit. Whatever…I'm just stressed from my final tomorrow and the fact I have to write all of the twenty journal stuff for English that I never bothered to do during the past term. I'm so stupid about how I handle school. Funny how it always works out for me though. Thank you osmosis! Absorption of info as I sleep.


	22. Act 4 Scene 5: I Should Have Written Th...

There was a passing of light in the dark of the morning. A whole night had passed within the fortress. And as sawn slowly approached now there was only one thing left. The Twilight Gauntlet. Hawthorne's Gauntlet. And the key was in the vest pocket of Franklin McCoy's black vest. The Twilight Key. Then…there what researchers foolishly call in jest, Twilight Blade. A curious name. Something no one ever researched or looked into. It doesn't matter now. It's too late to think about it. It was only another mere tool of Hawthorne's that was uneeded in the end.

The shadows crossed in the room. A young man's and an older man. There was a dropping of a coat on the floor that Jet wore. It was only now that Jet realized his foolhardy mistake of forgetting his ARM after dropping it in his fight with Ranchel. He was more concerned with reaching this man now.

It seemed like eons. It was only thirty seconds. Thoughts can pass slowly or quickly. It all depends on the wielder. Jet had time for thoughts. Frank did not.

"You will die by my Sylph Thrust!" Frank darted from his spot as Jet formed two fists and swallowed some spit. There was a cold foil hurtling towards the gray haired man, and though it was moving fast, Jet saw it as slow. It was a rush of adrenaline he had built up. There was a foil heading for him with swirling air about it. The foil was scraping against the air and breaking, thus expanding the range of the point of the foil. If Jet let it hit his entire left side of his torso wouldn't exist any longer.

That was when Jet moved backwards throwing his holster and rounds into the path of his enemy. Though they all were obliterated it stopped the attack and saved his life. Still, when the winds broke and the rounds met the foil a burst of a small explosion threw Jet to the floor when he landed off-balance. Still, a roll kept him alive.

"So…what…was that?" Jet groaned as he stood upward. "What's a 'Sylph Thrust'?"

"I think actions spoke louder than words." Frank mused. "Still, if you must, I have trained over the years with this foil. Mastery of a foil is far more impressive than an ARM. Saru would be pleased with me." Jet let out a low growl. He was still on something so stupid as that? A woman. A woman when there was one who may die nearby who gave her everything for him. "My blade will manipulate the winds around me. The air is my own. Even using oxygen…to cut fire." He waved his foil about as Jet stood. "Now the Flame Sabre!" The wave of the foil cut the air as it swung for Jet. A trail of fire behind it heated terribly in temperature.

Jet moved aside of the attack. It was impressive, but slow and easy to move around. Jet went for his holster. There was no holster. No weapon. So he threw every punch he could muster for the man who was too preoccupied with bringing his blade to a stop. Sling the foil brought only two means to stop it. Slowing to a stop, because a jerk won't do, or sending it immediately in another direction. Frank went with the latter. Two quick movements and Jet stepped back as the front of his shirt brought about two thin slashes across it. Jet moved forward immediately to attack.

A third unseen swipe that was taken catches up to Jet who grunts with a gasp as his punch falls from being aimed at Frank's shoulder to Frank's ankle. It was Frank's game for the moment. The kick, in which Frank took some air, sent Jet to the ground. Sending the younger man sliding across the metal floor on his back.

Jet was on his knees in a crouch much like a runner before the race. His head tilted to look at Frank. His blade thrown outward Frank charged forward. An obvious Sylph Thrust coming for Jet. Jet watched the older man's wrist. The attack hit the ground a split-second after the younger man jumped away with the power of his four appendages.

Jet landed in a crouch throwing his two arms together and bringing them to a fold with a grin. "Positive Gattling Fire!" The room ripped apart by the positive energy blasts brought splinters of metal to soar into the part of the room nearest to Jet and McCoy; leaving the woman out of the business. Frank had moved away from the multitudes of the attacks. It seemed like Jet's trick was pointless. Same with Adven's. These forms of the attacks failed in every attempt at it. Still, Jet used it. And the floors merely broke apart and became like a rocky terrain. Metal ground that was flat now uneven and weak.

"That was pointless!" Frank lashed outward with his foil to the front. Another attempt at the Thrust attack. Jet never bothered to move. Frank moved gracefully about the ravaged floor as Jet merely stood taller. "Now die!"

Jet moved an inch to the left and escaped being pierced by the simple foil attack. Frank stood there as he watched his foil. His attack had failed? He couldn't move past that.

"You can Ranchel are prone to the weakness my same attack brought. A change in the terrain." Jet spoke coldly. "When I did this for her she could not use the kinetic energy correctly because it had been disrupted. With you…it made it so your wrist was bent upward more than it should. When you throw your attack you always thrust with your wrist bent as downward in direction as you could make it. If you can't do that and keep your attack straight with your arm there is a disruption in your attack."

"Shut up!" A wave of fire-induced attack and moved aside, and he pulled forth his only defense. The Raven's Wing. A stupid blade rusted and tattered by the years. Still yet, the foil of his enemy was knocked aside mid-attack. That did not disable Frank. He quickly rebounded and formed a fist quickly. A fist that tore at the air and created a trail of fire much like his Flame Sabre. The Ember Fist attack.

Jet was sent to the floor bouncing like a rock on water on two skips. The left cheek of Jet left with a small first-degree burn.

Nevertheless Jet stood back up, and his face was directed at Sandra, to whom he noticed a look to the farther side of the room. Frank was standing in front of the wooden box that housed the gauntlet that belonged to Hawthorne. The key in it's lock and the top lifted off. Jet felt terrified for once in his life. This is a gauntlet that has an unknown use. It could possibly bring about the end of the world in a moment. A device that Hawthorne may have made to wipe out all of the living out of vengeance many years ago. A 'plan B' for that dead man. Something he was never able to use. Sandra felt it too. As Jet looked to what he could do and found nothing Frank equipped the gauntlet to his arm. Fitting it on perfectly. Made of a cold bronze metal. Covering one entire forearm. Built for the right arm.

"Now…you will never…stop me…we shall see my brilliance." Frank warned without tone. He snapped his body to face Jet. There was nothing.

Jet's arm finally moved. His leg picked his body up and he stood. "I know what the gauntlet's true purpose is."

"Oh?"

"You cannot use it. You lack the trait to use it. You are the only one who does." Jet warned.

"I am, am I?"

"You are. I saw that earlier."

"So…what is the purpose of the gauntlet?"

"No one knows what it's for, right? Some think…he uses it out of anger. He made it to kill. It's far from it. What do you think he made the Elements with? No being, demon or otherwise can do that."

"Not even the guardians. I'm well aware."

"He made it to create. That gauntlet is much like the Elements themselves. Maybe if you saw them like I have you'd understand. All of them draw in power from around them, they draw in power from the emotion they belong to. The gauntlet works the same and it allows the wielder to create items like that."

Frank walked across the floor to his foil. "You say I cannot use this? It's still profitable to me if you believe it to be so."

There was a blink of a glimmering metal that soared for Jet. There was no movement. There was no time. Just crimson that flung to the air as Jet fell to the floor with a chunk of his shirt missing. Jet was happy he still had his arm, but his shoulder took a good one-fourth of the Sylph Thrust that Frank had sent for him.

Jet's eyes rolled. There were faint noises in his ears. Nothing he could make out. There was not any noises though. Just Frank returning to a defenseless pose of near satisfaction. He knew biology. He was aware Jet was still alive. But…the mere attacking of the boy was not enough to make up for anything. Jet seemed to remember someone. He was not sure who they were. He didn't care. He just knew they were on his side. There was a lot of them. Just some heartbeat in the dark where he could not see. Like he was Ranchel suddenly and saw what could not be seen. His left hand jerked and the muscles closed around the Raven's Wing hilt.

He moved his head aside as his eyelids parted and he stood upward ignoring the pain to his right arm at the moment. He used the ancient sword to stand on his feet. The sword leaving a large indent on the floor. Jet grabbed the blade's hilt as it stood at his head.

Frank stared idly by at the weapon Jet had stuck in the ground, and then he looked at the gauntlet. Returning his glance to the large Zanbato like sword that stuck out of the ground before Jet. Something that had once been known to be used against demons that rode others and riders on horses. It could kill both of the enemies. A foil against that was giving Frank the advantage as long as his blade did not meet the heavy one Jet had.

Jet grasped the foot-long hilt of the original state of the Raven's Wing. With no effort Jet had it out of the ground, and the hilt in both hands. A single swing of a heavy sword—that was not heavy, but deceptive in size. It was still as heavy as it had been when a rusted blade, but now it was thicker, longer, sharper, and the hilt was extended. As well as the fact that by the time Jet had missed Frank who jumped away a swelling of force behind it formed and the room between the two men sweltered. A large wave that looked familiar to a gale of wind, though appearing destructive had not left more than mere scratches on the floor. Though, it would probably leave much damage to a man.

Frank never faltered. He extended his right hand and the Twilight Gauntlet negated the attack. Making all of the force disappear as if nothing had come from Jet's blade. Jet's eyes went open, not out of surprise, but out of realization.

"These…two are kindred spirits. Raven's Wing and Hawthorne's Gauntlet are the same item who act separately." Frank looked on unamused. Still, Jet went on. "The gauntlet creates…and the Raven's Wing destroys? No…Hawthorne cared about the human race more than anyone would think after seeing his story. It was his will to protect the humans that he created the Elements to care for them. Each of these…items are fueled by the emotion one feels when you have the will to protect someone."

"You are a smart boy." Frank complimented. "You are the son of Saru and Elliot, after all."

"You were able to find out…that the Hawthorne's Gauntlet…was made to create the Twilight Elements. And that…your crappy sword was also worn by Hawthorne who used his will to protect those he cared for with it."

"You've discovered…what I've devoted my life to…in one minute." The gauntlet was tossed aside with a loud echoing clang. Frank sat on the ground on his knees. "I've been…defeated…by Enduro once more."

Jet dropped the Raven's Wing. It was over? Jet did not expect such…a conclusion to this. He thought it was just heating up now that they each had two items that could never defeat the other. He was so on edge and adrenaline that he desperately wanted to fight now! He felt a bit cheated.

"I…don't deserve to live." Frank continued with a tone that was distant. As if his actions had caught up with his mind. He could only keep his head tilted to the floor and his arms out as if he could not use them. Like he was waiting to have his head cut off. "I…really…am…a horrible…man…a…disgrace. My life…was wasted on trying to upstage a dead man and impress a woman…who never loved me. Sandra was right…I never loved her. I'm lucky I can even have a chance to dream to love her even at a chance near unrequited love." His head hung in shame. "Saru…did not go with Elliot because of what he studied or because of how smart he is…but because he's a person…and I'm only a shell."

Frank stood up and Jet stood ready to lash back. Still, Frank went in another direction. Towards the woman with the pale hair. "What…are you doing?" Jet wondered. Was this over? No one said it was. In all his fights usually he knew when it was over, and he didn't feel like it was. Frank was a man who ignored him however. A wearily stagger towards Sandra instead of Jet though. He tripped and fell onto the floor as he came to the woman.

It was like the life had been sucked right out of him. Was this a broken man suddenly? Still, he made it to a point where his head fell into her lap, and her tired face in a dizzy bob looked to him. "I…don't deserve you…because…I know…that you…will forgive me…though I hate that you will. I hate that you will forgive me…for tearing your dream from you and…hurting you gravely."

"I…can…only do one thing…to at least…deserve…that forgiveness. I…will save you…and mend the wounds…I made."

Jet saw little interest with what was happening with those two now. He found that she was safer wit h him now…for some odd reason. An hour ago he would have thought anything except that. Jet came upon the gauntlet instead. Picking it up lightly. It was just a defensive shield that would protect the ones you cared for. It was an emotion in a physical state. Like his Positive Cannon, but not temporary. And the Raven's Wing had the same capability. Jet looked and saw the sunlight as it broke. From a tower you could see the world. The sea of sand for miles.

"Is…it possible…that it can break…that it broke…the darkness in Frank's heart?" Jet wondered as his attention went back to the couple across the room. Frank had picked the woman from the floor gently and was now holding her as she was barely awake still. She was in need of rest as well as some immediate attention to her wound. The man looked to Jet.

"I will deal with the key and the gauntlet." Jet informed the older man. "No one will see them ever again. They are not needed on Filgaia to make something real."

"It seems like…that there's nothing more important in this world to find…someone or someones…whether they be friend or love…to make a person's life worthwhile, and once you get that there's only the need to protect them." Jet discussed. He didn't say he agreed with that statement, or that he lived up to that. He just said it because it related to Frank. "I don't have anything except this planet to look to. That is why I fight. Because the only thing I care for is this planet and myself. I may hate everything about me, my past, or anything…but I at least lived on Filgaia…and that's the only thing I have to give."

"A rival forces us to become better than we are today, and…a rival is a true friend. Someone who is not afraid to question your actions, but also someone who will also side with you if you need the. Just because…my…father and you were rivals of sorts, you could also be considered…the greatest allies. You both worked with Hawthorne's creations. Studying them."

Frank glanced his way. "I will not lose sight of my work. And…I will never lose my mind to demons of my past and heart…now…that I think…I know I need to protect something."

Jet nodded as Frank left. Frank had a job to do. It was a horrible moment for Jet when Frank touched the button on the side of the elevator and it opened with the car at the top now. Had he climbed for no reason? Turns out that Virginia had found a way to get the power on without the negative side to it. She went about with Emilia and destroyed everything that would make up the defense system of the tower. Sour had just turned back on the power few moments ago.

"You…coming Jet?" Frank wondered.

"Just…leave me be…"


End file.
